There have been some brilliant individual performances already during the 2024 Formula 1 season.
Lando Norris stole the headlines in Miami but during the first six race weekends, plenty of other drivers have put in some fantastic displays.
Speaking on the Beyond The Grid Podcast, Sky Sports pundit Martin Brundle has highlighted another race that caught his eye.
The season started with 20 drivers on the grid, but Williams star Logan Sargeant currently sits 21 in the Drivers’ Championship.
That’s because Oliver Bearman made an unexpected cameo in Saudi Arabia for Ferrari that left Brundle seriously impressed.
The 19-year-old is returning to the Formula 1 paddock in Imola for the first time since that weekend.
He’s got another important job on his hands as he looks to make the best case possible to be a permanent fixture on the grid in 2025.
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Martin Brundle impressed by Oliver Bearman’s Ferrari cameo
The start of the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix race weekend couldn’t have started any better for Oliver Bearman.
After a tough opening race in Bahrain, Bearman put his PREMA on pole position for the Formula 2 Feature Race.
He never got to take part in that event, instead earning a call-up to the Ferrari team after Carlos Sainz required appendix surgery.
Bearman got one practice session in the SF-24 before qualifying and narrowly missed out on reaching Q3.
The 19-year-old started 11 but drove brilliantly and brought home six points for the team.
Bearman earned plenty of praise for his performance in the Ferrari and Brundle has admitted that his ability to deal with the pressure of the situation should be heralded.
He’s now preparing to jump into a Formula 1 car again although the 2024 Haas is a very different beast to this year’s Ferrari.
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Martin Brundle explains what impressed him about Oliver Bearman
Asked about whether he was surprised by Bearman in Saudi Arabia, Brundle said: “I think now, the drivers are so well prepared mentally, physically, nutritionally, on the engineering side with the simulators.
“It was mighty impressive that he kept his head. In terms of just making the car function, I’m not that surprised.
“But, when he had Lando [Norris] and Lewis [Hamilton] hunting him down in the second phase of the race and he kept it out of the wall and he kept his head intact, that’s the bit that impresses me.
“But they’re so well prepared and they’re so mature. I mean I got into Formula 1 at 24 and I felt quite young at the time, so to do that when you’re 17 or 18 as we saw Kimi [Raikkonen] do or Max [Verstappen], I find incredible.”
There are other rookies not on the grid who will be pleased to hear that Brundle thinks Bearman coped with the pressure well when he turned out for Ferrari because of the preparation he’s gone through.
The likes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Victor Martins are racing Bearman in F2 and will hope that his cameo shows that they might also be ready to make the step-up next year.
Haas are said to be moving heaven and earth to sign Bearman from Ferrari for 2025.
He will hope he can follow in the footsteps of George Russell who spent several years out of loan before returning to his parent team.
Bearman needs to make sure he reaches his peak as soon as Lewis Hamilton – or potentially Charles Leclerc – decides they want to step away from the team.
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