"It's lovely for someone so young, like Max Verstappen when he came in, who seems to have all the ingredients": Ollie Bearman praised by F1 pundit

Former F1 driver and pundit Johnny Herbert has praised Ferrari junior Ollie Bearman as someone who's showing the kind of capabilities that Max Verstappen did when he first debuted. The Dutch driver made his F1 debut in 2015 and impressed everyone immediately.

It was not long after his first year with Toro Rosso that Verstappen was promoted to Red Bull mid-2016 F1 season. He won his very first race with the team and has since progressed to become a very successful driver.

In the same vein, Bearman has been very impressive in his junior career. He won multiple races last season in F2 and was on pole for the race in Jeddah before parachuting to F1. He impressed everyone on his debut at the big stage, finishing P7, and there are many who feel the Ferrari junior should be on the F1 grid next season.

Talking to RacingNews365, Herbert felt that Bearman showed the signs that were first seen in Verstappen when the Dutchman debuted in the sport. He said:

"I know Fred (Vasseur, Ferrari team principal) said 'He's good, but he's still got a lot of things to learn', but I thought that was classic Fred trying to calm everybody down, but I don't think we should calm down. It's now about giving him that chance to be in the cockpit of a Formula 1 car in the future, which he absolutely should be, a bit like Liam Lawson. He should be in a Formula 1 car as well."

He added:

"But I think it's lovely for someone so young, like Max when he came in, who seems to have all the ingredients - speed, a good brain where he doesn't get himself into trouble, being able to absorb the pressure, taking that pressure away from himself, and then being able to deliver on the track as well. So there are a lot of very positive ingredients which is exciting, very exciting."

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Ferrari's Ollie Bearman compared to Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen

In terms of driving, Ollie Bearman was compared with both Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. According to Herbert, Bearman has the aggressive nature of driving that both Max and Lewis had earlier in their careers. Having said that, Bearman was arguably more similar to Hamilton in this respect than Verstappen.

Reminiscing how Max Verstappen was compared with Ayrton Senna for his elbow-out approach, Herbert said:

"He [Ollie Bearman] was all elbows out, and I totally understand that. It was part of an intimidation role he was trying to play. I remember years ago when everybody used to say that about Ayrton (Senna), that when you looked in your mirrors and you saw his yellow helmet, drivers would move out of the way."

He added:

"Max did the same thing, and he still plays that game now. Lewis also does it but in a very different way. You don't see it as much as you do with Max. Ollie is probably more like Lewis on that side and is a lot more capable of being able to intimidate but in a racy way. Max is the same, but it's just a different way. He's not aggressive, he's just calculated, very calculated."

There are rumors of Bearman being linked to a seat in F1 next season with Haas. The 18-year-old Brit impressed the team in 2023 during the free practice sessions, and it will be interesting to see if he does find himself with the team in 2025.