Ferrari chief shares four-word message engineers had for Oliver Bearman before F1 debut

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Ferrari engineer Jock Clear has shared the message his team had for Oliver Bearman before he made his Formula 1 debut in Saudi Arabia.

The 18-year-old won driver of the day for his fantastic performance as Carlos Sainz’s last-minute replacement in Jeddah.

Recalling the young Brit’s 48 hours in the Ferrari garage, Clear shared what his team told Bearman ahead of his first race on the F1 Nation Podcast.

Clear shares Bearman message ahead of Saudi Arabia GP

It’s hard to imagine a more nerve-wracking experience than making your debut in Formula 1.

The eyes of the world are on you as one of the chosen 20 drivers given the opportunity to drive some of the fastest cars in motor racing.

Combine that experience with making your bow on one of the most demanding and difficult tracks on the calendar and just one hour of practice before taking part in qualifying and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

However, Oliver Bearman dealt with that pressure better than anyone could have expected.

His pace wasn’t that far off teammate Charles Leclerc’s and his move on Yuki Tsunoda showed he wasn’t there just to make up the numbers.

Clear has now shared the message Ferrari’s engineers had for Bearman before he took to the track in Saudi Arabia.

They did everything they could to take the pressure off the 18-year-old.

In the back of his mind, Bearman would have known he was unlikely to get another opportunity like this again for some and he certainly made the most of it.

It feels like a matter of time until the teenager is a permanent fixture on the F1 grid.

Bearman makes perfect first impression in Formula 1

Speaking about Bearman’s preparation for the race, Clear said: “There’s so much information available, there’s so much work to do in an F1 car, we’ve kept it simple.

“Matteo [Togninalli] the chief engineer was like from the first get-go, ‘Just keep it simple’ for Ollie [Bearman].

“There’s lots of information available, so let’s not overload him, let’s just let him get up to speed and what you see is what we knew he was capable of but boy, I didn’t expect that under these circumstances.”

Bearman took Ferrari’s message to heart during the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix and drove like a man who had been in the sport for years.

Ferrari are going to decide whether Carlos Sainz is fit enough to drive in Australia until the last minute.

If he’s not 100%, then Bearman might get one more shot at racing in F1 this season.