Oliver Bearman Completes Incident-Free⁢ F1 Azerbaijan GP ⁢Day 1

Haas F1 Team rookie driver Oliver Bearman completed the 2024 F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix without incident on Friday, paving the way for ‍a “clean” performance in his first full F1 race weekend.

Bearman was ⁣chosen as a replacement following Kevin ​Magnussen’s one-race disqualification and was given the opportunity to learn the‌ team’s approach ​in each session before​ taking up a full-time seat ‍with ‍Haas F1 Team next ‌season.

Bearman improved his lap⁤ times on Friday in Baku, finishing ‌the day in ⁤the top 10 and maintaining a pace roughly on par with his experienced teammate Nico⁤ Hulkenberg. Hulkenberg’s time was 0.072 seconds faster ⁢than Bearman.

Bearman, 19, has previous racing experience as a last-minute ⁢replacement for Carlos‍ Sainz at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix earlier this year and also‌ drove a​ Haas VF-24 in FP1.

“FP2 was amazing. It was the best session of my life!” joked Bearman after the session.

“Well, I’m‌ happy that we managed to do⁤ a full session on Friday. ⁤We were able to progress step by step without rushing things. I’m⁢ very happy with the flow and the results today. On a track like this, it’s important to have confidence in the car, that’s really important. So it was a good day.”

In his first year in F2 in 2023, Bearman had a very successful‌ Baku round, taking pole position and also winning the sprint⁢ and feature races. He admitted in a media interview yesterday that last year he hit the wall in every session, but‌ this year ⁣he has had a much smoother experience since making the move to F1.

Asked if driving a big​ car in F1 is more difficult, Bearman said:⁣ “Yes, it is tough. I only hit the wall once in FP2 today, but that’s a small thing. We’ll⁤ be racing for that margin here.”

“I​ really gained confidence and felt really⁤ good at the end. I took ⁤it one step at a time and didn’t push myself too much, and⁣ now that I have confidence, I think I ​can aim even higher.”

“My goal is to⁣ be proud of my performance. To do‍ that, I have to improve and ultimately run at the level ⁣I know I can reach and without ⁤making mistakes. Tomorrow. The important thing is to be able to run without making mistakes.”

Haas F1 Team Aiming for More Points

In FP2, the two Haas cars finished 8th and 10th, so the team is aiming to earn more ​points as it chases RB, who is 6th in the constructors’ standings.

Nico Hulkenberg concluded that while “overall⁢ it wasn’t bad”, “it wasn’t perfect either”, acknowledging ‌that free⁤ practice results will not determine ‌weekend performance.

“Today is a free practice day and the aim is to get used to this very interesting and exciting‍ circuit again,” said Hulkenberg.

“This⁢ morning ‌it was very dusty ​and‌ the grip conditions were very poor, and the track evolved a lot during the day, so keeping up with⁢ the evolution of the course was key today.”

“In ⁣the afternoon on the soft tyres we didn’t have a very clean lap, but that’s OK. We need‌ to learn from this and understand our package, the tyres, everything.”

“I think ⁢it’s⁣ a positive result that I have⁢ the pace to be competitive starting ‌from this weekend. Tomorrow I’ll try to find some more techniques and go a⁣ bit ‍faster.”

Category: Formula 1 / Oliver Bearman / Haas F1 Team / F1 Azerbaijan⁢ GP