Jock Clear tells F1 fans why they should be ‘even more excited’ about Oliver Bearman in 2025

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Oliver Bearman is one of the more exciting prospects set to join the grid in 2025, having impressed on his outings with Haas and Ferrari this season.

The 19-year-old was named Ferrari’s reserve driver in 2024 and was unexpectedly called upon at this year’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix just two races into the campaign after Carlos Sainz suffered from appendicitis.

Oliver Bearman impressed everyone with how quickly he got up to speed with just an hour of practice in the car, going just 0.046s off and knocking Lewis Hamilton out of Q3 in qualifying. Damon Hill later said he was ‘stunned’ by how Bearman went on to finish seventh in the race, holding off Hamilton and Lando Norris.

He would later impress with his drive at Haas during the Azerbaijan GP when he replaced the banned Kevin Magnussen, sneaking a point after overtaking Nico Hulkenberg with an opportunistic move before the Virtual Safety Car.

Ferrari senior performance engineer Jock Clear has revealed what he is most excited about for Bearman when he makes his full-time F1 debut with Haas next season when speaking on the F1 Nation podcast.

Jock Clear is excited to see what Oliver Bearman learned from F1 outings

There is no doubt that Bearman will have learned a heap from his outings this year for next season, despite the Briton looking like he had always been on the grid in both cases.

Clear works as a driver coach for Charles Leclerc at Ferrari and formerly as the performance engineer to Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton when he worked at Mercedes, and believes Bearman will be one to watch next season.

“I would say Ollie is a bit of slow burner. That’s why I’m even more excited about him in the medium term than short term,” said Clear.

“Somebody said to me straight after Saudi, it will be interesting to see if Carlos doesn’t recover for Australia, maybe Ollie will get another go and I thought ‘I hope he doesn’t’ because Saudi was so good, it would be good for him to consolidate that.”

Oliver Bearman doubts raised in Formula 1 paddock

Bearman has a lot of hype surrounding himself and current F2 teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, largely as they are both seen as the next big stars of the future.

The Briton has put in decent performances and made F1 history by becoming the first driver to score points on debut for two different teams in the same season.

READ MORE: Who is 2025 Haas driver and Ferrari gem Oliver Bearman? Everything to know

Bearman has still received some criticism from doubters, however, who believe that his year in F2 would not normally warrant a promotion to F1.

Team owner Gene Haas previously explained why he is ‘personally excited’ for Bearman to drive full-time, having seen how he performs in the simulator.