Bearman hits out at 'young driver' F1 test rules

Dec.7 (GMM) Oliver Bearman has hit out at the rules forbidding him from taking part in FP1 and next week’s post-season test in Abu Dhabi.

Originally, Ferrari’s plan was to run the 19-year-old Briton in FP1 in Abu Dhabi – but the Maranello team ultimately ran Charles Leclerc’s brother Arthur.

That’s because, given that Bearman has substituted for race drivers three times in 2024 – for Carlos Sainz’s appendix surgery in Saudi Arabia, Kevin Magnussen’s one-race ban in Baku, and again for ill Haas driver Magnussen in Brazil – the FIA no longer recognises him as a “young driver”.

Under current F1 rules, a recognised “young driver” cannot have done more than two grands prix.

So with Esteban Ocon doing the Pirelli tyre test for Haas on day 1 of the Abu Dhabi session, Bearman – to race full-time alongside Ocon at the team next year – is also forbidden to do the test for rookie drivers a day later.

Bearman is unimpressed.

“If we go back a few years, (Fernando) Alonso did the rookie test after having won two world championships,” he is quoted as saying by Marca sports newspaper.

Indeed, the FIA granted an exception to Alonso in 2020 as he was returning after a two-year sabbatical with Alpine.

“I’ve only done three races, I’ve scored points twice, and he has two world championships – but he was able to do the rookie test,” Bearman exclaimed.

The good news for Bearman is that, along with Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli, he will take part in the Super Formula test at Suzuka from mid next week.

Bearman is the son of David Bearman, CEO of the insurance giant Aventum, whose logo the 19-year-old already wears on his Haas race overalls.