Ferrari junior Ollie Bearman admits working really closely with 31-year-old F1 driver this year

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Ferrari junior driver Ollie Bearman has admitted he’s learned a lot from Haas driver Kevin Magnussen during 2023.

Kevin Magnussen’s expertise was being heralded by Bearman during an interview with the official Formula 1 website.

There are very high hopes for Ollie Bearman at Ferrari who have backed the British driver for several years.

The 18-year-old starred in his first Formula 2 season this year, narrowly missing out on the top rookie award to Victor Martins.

But 2023 will be best remembered by Bearman for driving a Formula 1 car for the first time with the guidance of Kevin Magnussen.

While Bearman is part of Ferrari’s young driver programme, their connection with Haas has allowed the teenager to take part in two practice sessions this year in Mexico City and Abu Dhabi.

Making the transition from an F2 car to an F1 car is not an easy feat and having a driver as experienced as Magnussen by your side to guide you through it is incredibly helpful.

The Danish driver has been on the grid for years and although Haas’s performance was poor this year, there wasn’t much more he could have done.

He might be frustrated that new teammate Nico Hulkenberg was able to get more out of the car in qualifying.

However, the car looked incredibly difficult to drive on Sundays and made scoring points a herculean task.

Bearman praises Magnussen’s guidance during 2023

Talking about his first experiences in an F1 car, Bearman said: “I worked more closely with Kevin, and he gave me a lot of insight about the F1 car, especially in Mexico.

“It’s quite a unique track, so that was really helpful and nice to build a relationship with him and learn from him because they’re super experienced and super quick guys.”

While Magnussen may have helped Bearman throughout 2023, there’s a potential for the pair to end up being teammates in the future.

Like Red Bull use AlphaTauri to blood their young drivers, Ferrari are attempting to do the same with Haas.

Bearman has been linked with a drive with the American team in 2025 if he stars in F2 next year.

That may put Hulkenberg and Magnussen on edge knowing their futures in Formula 1 could be in doubt.

They’ll be praying that the team can nail their development over the winter to give themselves a fighting chance.