MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Haas driver Oliver Bearman says his team is “exactly where we want to be” heading into the Formula 1 season but cautioned that people shouldn't read too much into the fast starts of his Ferrari-powered car in the preseason.
The Ferrari power unit used by the American Haas team raised eyebrows with lightning-fast getaways in preseason testing, boosted by a smaller turbo. But Bearman, who will start Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix from 12th on the grid, isn't banking on it as a silver bullet.
“I think Bahrain (testing) was a bit of an outlier,” Bearman told The Associated Press. “As time goes on, people are going to get used to the starting procedure. I hope I am proven wrong and that we have rocket starts all the year compared to everyone else. But, you know, I’m not counting on it, that’s for sure.”
With or without a turbo boost, the 20-year-old British driver is facing high expectations after an impressive start to his career.
In his F1 debut for Ferrari in Saudi Arabia two years ago, where he stood in for an ill Carlos Sainz at the last minute, Bearman qualified 11th and finished the race in seventh under huge pressure.
Bearman joined Haas later that year for two more stand-in appearances, in Azerbaijan – where he finished 10th and became the first driver to have scored points for two different teams in his first two races; and São Paulo, where he finished 12th.
Last year, in his first full season, Bearman beat his teammate, veteran Esteban Ocon, 13-11 in qualifying events, and 41-38 on points in the races — capped by a fourth-place finish in Mexico. As a member of Ferrari’s Driver Academy, many expect him to end up in Maranello in the future.
Bearman himself was also thrilled with his 2025 season.
“Yeah, I would say so. I think my best races where at the end of the year, which is good," he said. "It shows that I was improving throughout the year. I was enjoying everything very much and learning a lot as well, and that’s obviously very important.
“But also the progress that the team has made has been incredible, and I think we’ve started the preseason exactly how we wanted to with good reliability. We’ve gone through all of the items that we needed to so on that regard, we’re exactly where we want to be.”
Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu couldn’t be happier with his driver.
“He’s such a joy to work with,” Komatsu told the AP. “Obviously, his talented, no doubt. You know, I always knew that he had a huge potential in terms of speed, natural speed. But it was a matter of harnessing that talent, giving him clear focus, clear objectives, etc.”
Being at Haas allows Bearman to develop his craft away from the main spotlight, but with support from global manufacturers in Ferrari and Toyota. The latter is its title sponsor, which builds on the technical partnership it signed in October 2024 for “research, engineering and driver development.” There has been speculation that Toyota's increased involvement in 2026 is a prelude to the Japanese giant buying the can-do team outright, given it spent almost $3 billion from 2002 to 2009 on a failed works campaign.
But Komatsu said the team isn't for sale, and that there have not been any talks about a takeover. He also couldn’t care less that Cadillac, America’s newest F1 team, is dominating the limelight back home with Super Bowl ads and more.
“I’m not worried about limelight. It’s not about limelight,” Komatsu said. “It’s a sporting competition. You know, for me, we are a race team, a single-seater race team owned by Mr. (Gene) Haas, an American entrepreneur – and this is his private team, right? We are a race team. We’re not corporate. I don’t really care about other teams’ identities. I think we are very unique in who we are. We only exist to race. We don’t sell energy drinks. We don’t sell road cars. We’re here to race, right? Everything we do is how to get that trackside result better. We’re focused on that, and if we do that, the result will speak for itself.”
And while Bearman already has a level of maturity and experience that his rare for his age, Haas race engineer Ronan O'Hare said it's easy to forget that Melbourne will only be his 28th F1 start and he still has much to learn.
“He keeps tricking you because he’s so knowledgeable and so experienced like from simulator driving, and driving cars since he was like 8,” O’Hare told the AP in the Albert Park paddock.
“I think, as everyone’s seen, the bit that was missing maybe was the consistency,” O’Hare added. "Small errors creeping in, they’re not always entirely his fault, they’re sometimes circumstantial, but that was a step change we actually took after shutdown last year to aim for more consistency and to stay focused. So, in terms of this year, the target would be scoring points every race – or at least be in a position to. And to be honest we could or should have done that last year.”
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