18-year-old becomes youngest British F1 driver in history

The 18-year-old from Chelmsford will be the youngest British driver to start an F1 race and third youngest debutant behind Max Verstappen (17) and Lance Stroll (18) However, Bearman is being thrown in at the deep end at this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. British teenager Bearman replaces Sainz for Saudi GP. A member of the Ferrari driver academy since 2021, he drove in two practice sessions for the Haas team last year. Now, he has prevented new Ferrari signing Lewis Hamilton from becoming the first driver from the United Kingdom to race for Ferrari in F1 since Eddie Irvine in 1999.

Bearman made his Formula 2 debut last year. He became the first driver in the history of the category to top every practice session and win the feature race. He started karting when he was eight years old, made his single-seater debut in 2020, won both the Italian and German Formula 4 titles in 2021. Ferrari driver will race on one of the fastest and most demanding tracks on the calendar.

He has spent plenty of time in the Ferrari simulator, but a race weekend having missed the first practice day is a whole other matter. Bearman has the chance to make an impression in the toughest field of all.

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