Teen F1 star Oliver Bearman juggles racing fame and ‘normal’ life

Oliver Bearman raced for Ferrari in Formula One last year, has gone on training rides with cycling great Tadej Pogacar and this weekend starts his first full season against the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

Only 19, and a Monaco resident like many of his F1 rivals, the Briton said he wants to make the most of “normal” life while he can.

That will not be easy for the tall Haas driver, who as a stand-in a year ago in Saudi Arabia became Ferrari's youngest rookie and now boasts 2.4-million followers on Instagram.

He has been spoken of as a potential replacement at Ferrari for seven-times world champion Hamilton, the sport's most successful driver of all time, when the 40-year-old retires.

A recent full-time move to Monaco, which brings tax advantages Bearman is open about but is also a logical step for someone who has not lived in England for years, could provide some shade from the F1 limelight.

“There's plenty of more well-known athletes and nobody knows me, which is great,” the Briton, who left his home in Chelmsford in 2021 to compete in Italian F4 (which he won), told Reuters after testing in Bahrain last month.

“I'm very lucky I can get away with living a normal life. So I'm making sure to make the most of it while I can.

“Hopefully, my performances are good enough to enable me to be well-known. But, of course, losing privacy is never fun.”

Confident about his F1 abilities and ambitions, Bearman described pedalling on the corniche roads around Monaco with Pogacar in more self-deprecating terms: “When he's up to be bored and cycle slowly with me, he drags me along.”

The Briton will line up in Melbourne on Sunday with three races under his belt, two as a replacement for Haas last season.

He has scored points on two occasions but how good the Haas car is remains to be seen, with the team doing plenty of mileage in testing without lighting up the timing screens.

“In a way I'm not a rookie but I would consider myself a rookie. Compared to some of the guys, I'm missing a lot of experience,” said Bearman, whose French teammate Esteban Ocon has 156 starts to his credit.

“I think in terms of season expectations I'm measuring against myself. It want to improve my level, be very critical in terms of my own performance. That's the best way to be.

“Of course we have no idea how the car is going to perform. Even after this test I don't think we have a clear indication of where we stand compared to some others.

“Therefore I have to look within and be very self-critical and try to improve myself as much as possible throughout the year.”