Oliver Bearman may be a rookie in Formula 1 but he is already proving to be an exceptional talent – even if he does still have to pinch himself over who he is competing with.
“I never thought I would be racing against Max [Verstappen] in real life, but I guess some things change,” said the 20-year-old after a brilliant drive at Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix saw him secure fourth place, his best-ever finish in F1.
But Bearman didn’t just race with Verstappen, he produced some bold and impressive driving that even the four-time world champion would have been proud of.
He even kept his cool in the latter stages of the race when he was being hunted down by Oscar Piastri, who started the day as championship leader and needed to pass Bearman to ensure he left Mexico in that position.
But instead Bearman held on, with Piastri’s fifth-place finish and victory for his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris meaning the latter now leads the standings by one point with four races to go.
Based on this showing, it is not unreasonable to predict that Bearman could one day be in the same position as fellow Brit Norris and challenging for titles.
For now, however, he is just happy to be competitive with much more experienced drivers.
“Definitely a crazy race,” he said. “I’m a bit lost for words – at one point we were looking at the podium. I was bringing it home with a lot of nerves.
“At the end, P4 is a great result and we got both cars in the points. We really needed that good result, so I’m really, really happy.
“It was a crazy race. Good lap one – stayed out of trouble, just about. Then the incident with Max and Lewis [Hamilton] – I managed to benefit from that as well.”