Red heart, but on time
Recently Ollie Bearman has been at the center of some interesting market rumors. The young Haas driver, considered one of the most promising talents on the Formula 1 grid, has indeed been linked to Red Bull in the hypothesis – which now seems to have become quite remote – of a farewell to Max Verstappen’s team at the end of this season. The particular detail is that Bearman is a Ferrari academy driver, he made his F1 debut precisely with the red team replacing Carlos Sainz at the last moment in the 2024 Saudi Arabia GP and seems to be the driver destined, in a sort of hypothetical ‘line of succession’, to wear the red suit when Lewis Hamilton has left the Maranello team.
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Given the disappointing 2025 season of the seven-time world champion, many had imagined that Bearman could have taken the wheel of Ferrari as a main driver already in the 2027 season, hypothesizing that another year below expectations would have pushed Hamilton to retire. Instead, despite some imperfections, Hamilton has risen sportingly in this 2026, winning his first victory as a Ferrari driver and arriving at the summer break second in the World Championship, 50 points behind leader Antonelli.
One Englishman after another
In an interview given to the official F1 podcast, Beyond The Grid, Bearman admitted that Hamilton’s success in Barcelona was emotionally ambivalent for him: on one hand, there was the joy of seeing one of his sporting idols triumph with Ferrari, on the other the awareness of what this triumph could mean for his own future: “It’s really cool to see him [Hamilton] at this level. Seeing Ferrari win with the best British driver, the best driver we have ever seen in F1, is something really special. Of course, in terms of the future [for me], it’s not ideal. But I’m still young. I’m only 21. I’m not in a hurry. And for me, staying at Haas for the near future is not a bad thing”.
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However, Bearman is willing to be patient for a while, not forever: “My goal remains to be a Ferrari driver one day – he clarified – obviously, though, I don’t want to just sit and wait for 3-4-5 years for a seat to free up, because there are no guarantees and I would risk wasting my best years. My ultimate goal – maybe it’s a bit selfish, but that’s okay because it’s the reason I’m here – is to compete for World Championships; so if I get this opportunity from anywhere, I will take it“. Maranello has been warned: betting too much on the champion of the past can compromise the future.
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