Haas suffered a difficult start to the 2025 Formula 1 season after finishing at the bottom of the timing sheets in both Friday practice sessions at the Australian Grand Prix.

Haas played its cards close to its chest in pre-season testing, committing to high-fuel run plans and avoiding quali sims, a tactic that paid dividends last year.

Speaking on Thursday, Esteban Ocon was in good spirits heading into the Australian Grand Prix, noting that Haas had discovered issues in testing but had a clear path.

“I think our first two days of the test, we felt very good with the car,” Ocon told select media including Motorsport Week.

“It was very solid, I was happy with it.

“The last day was a bit more difficult for us. We know exactly where we have to improve straight away and where the strong point of the car is.

“It is very clear to us, which is a very good thing. From the first day, we’ve managed to put the finger on where we needed to improve, and that’s good.”

Despite the former Alpine driver remaining confident, the cracks began to appear for Haas in Australia.

First, Oliver Bearman crashed heavily during FP1 as he lost control of his VF-25 into the gravel trap before careering into the barriers.

The British driver wasn’t able to return to the track with his Haas car, requiring repairs, and he missed the second practice session as the team was forced to change the gearbox and engine due to extensive damage.

Ocon didn’t fare any better on the other side of the garage, finishing 19th in both Frdiay sessions, as it became apparent the Banbury-based squad had not managed to improve in the areas previously mentioned by the Frenchman.

Haas chief reflects on ‘pretty difficult day’

Team Principal Ayao Komatsu admitted that he was left surprised by the team’s showing on Friday.

“Today was a pretty difficult day; it wasn’t the performance we were expecting,” Komatsu said.

“We have one indication as to why in FP1, but Ollie crashed, so we couldn’t completely get to the bottom of why we were uncompetitive.

“So we need to make another step tonight and then do the best we can tomorrow.”

After missing out on crucial track time, Bearman offered an explanation as to why he suffered a huge shunt on the streets of Melbourne.

“It wasn’t a case of feeling, honestly,” he said.

“The feeling was good, I think just wanting a bit too much too soon.

“It is just kind of my approach isn’t the right one for F1.

“In F2, you go straight to quali after the first practice session; in F1 you have two more [practice sessions].

“So there’s no need to be straight on the limit.”

Ocon, however, was once again looking on the bright side as he felt Haas had made strides forward after the opening day.

“We did a really good step from FP1 to FP2,” the 28-year-old explained.

“Yes, it doesn’t look shiny on the timing page, that’s very true, but the car improved quite well from FP1 to FP2.

“There are still some things that we know we can find, and there is margin for us to improve.”

Given the absence of qualifying runs in testing, it remains to be seen whether Friday was a true indicator of Haas’ underlying pace, or a sign of more troubles to come.

No doubt the squad will be looking to bounce back in qualifying.

READ MORE: Is Haas ready to bounce back from testing failures?

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A quarter of the 2025 Formula 1 grid is made of rookies, but who are the five young stars eager to take on the Australian Grand Prix this weekend?

In 2024, the exact same 20 drivers who’d finished the previous campaign remained with the same team for the first time in the sport’s history and many questioned if rookies would ever get a shot again.

What a difference 12 months makes as Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Alpine’s Jack Doohan, Haas’ Oliver Bearman, Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar and Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto are all ready to take on the F1 challenge.

Each driver has shown prowess at junior level and has a unique entry into F1.

Kimi Antonelli – Mercedes

Antonelli joined the Mercedes junior programme in April 2019, a few months before his 13th birthday and the Italian’s rise through the ranks has been rapid.

His single-seater debut came in Italian Formula 4 at the end of 2021 and Antonelli immediately saw podium finishes in a handful of appearances.

A title onslaught came the following year with championship victories in Italian and ADAC F4 with Prema and in 2023 Antonelli added the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA) title to his trophy cabinet.

That convinced Mercedes to fast-track Antonelli to Formula 2 and he repaid that faith by taking multiple victories before his 18th birthday, earning his shot at being Lewis Hamilton’s F1 replacement in Brackley. 

Jack Doohan – Alpine

Doohan, 22, is the son of five-time MotoGP champion Mick, but a karting gift from family friend Michael Schumacher helped convince the young Australian to commit to four wheels.

After success in karting, Doohan stepped up to single-seaters in 2018 and finished fifth in the British F4 championship.

He progressed to EuroFormula and the F3 Asian Championship in 2019 before making the jump to FIA Formula 3 a year later.

After finishing second in the 2021 F3 Drivers’ standings, Doohan made a cameo late in the year in F2, claiming a front row spot in his second event which earned him Alpine Academy status for 2022.

Doohan took six wins across two seasons in F2 and was confirmed as Alpine’s F1 reserve in 2023 and ‘24.

With Esteban Ocon departing Alpine one race early last year, Doohan received his full-GP debut in Abu Dhabi, but his first full campaign begins with his home race this weekend in Melbourne.

Oliver Bearman – Haas

Perhaps the most-known of all the F1 rookies thanks to three super-sub appearances in 2024, Haas has a potential future world champion on its hands with Bearman.

The 19-year-old Englishman made his single-seater debut in ADAC and Italian Formula 4 in 2020 and a year later became the first driver to win both championships in a single season and that got him onto Ferrari’s radar.

As a member of the Scuderia’s academy programme, Bearman made his FIA F3 debut in 2022 and flourished, finishing third in the championship with Prema.

Bearman progressed to take on two seasons in F2 with Prema, winning seven races across the campaigns, but it was his 2024 exploits in F1 that made the world take notice.

With Carlos Sainz suffering with appendicitis in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia last year, Bearman made his F1 debut with Ferrari at short notice, narrowly missing out on a Q3 appearance after just an hour of practice.

Bearman impressed in the race, finishing seventh and he made two further GP appearances for Haas later in the season in place of Kevin Magnussen, scoring another point in Baku and out-qualifying Nico Hulkenberg on both appearances.

Isack Hadjar – Racing Bulls

Hadjar, 21, is a race winner at every level of single-seater competition.

In 2019, at just 14-years-old, he made his single-seater debut in the French Formula Four Championship, winning at Spa-Francorchamps and finishing seventh in the standings.

On his rise through the ranks, Hadjar won races in FRECA, FIA F3 and F2 and last year mounted a title challenge on the final rung of the single-seater ladder before F1.

Hadjar’s title challenge came to a sad end in the final race, with stalling at the start rendering him unable to prevent Bortoleto from taking the championship.

However, Hadjar’s season-long fight in F2 meant he got the nod to join Racing Bulls in 2025 as Liam Lawson progressed to the senior Red Bull outfit.

Gabriel Bortoleto – Sauber

Bortoleto joins the long list of Brazilian stars to race in F1 and does so with the backing of Fernando Alonso’s management company.

The 20-year-old made his single-seater debut in 2020 but it wasn’t until 2023 that he started to gain global recognition, winning the FIA F3 championship as a rookie and earning a place in the McLaren development programme as a result.

He made the jump to F2 in 2024 and joined an illustrious group of racing legends to win both F3 and F2 as a rookie, following the likes of Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri.

That convinced Sauber to poach Bortoleto from the McLaren stable to make his F1 debut this season.

READ MORE – How the F1 pecking order is shaping up heading into 2025

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Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu isn’t concerned by rookie Oliver Bearman’s limited qualifying prep during Formula 1 pre-season testing thanks to the prowess he showed in 2024.

Bearman is one of five classified rookies heading into 2025 but the 19-year-old Briton already has three GP starts under his belt.

In 2024, Bearman raced for Ferrari in Saudi Arabia as Carlos Sainz underwent treatment for appendicitis and deputised for Kevin Magnussen at Haas in Baku and Interlagos.

Those three qualifying sessions showed Komatsu all he needed in terms of Bearman’s qualifying readiness, which is why he isn’t worried that Haas’ typical testing programme focussed almost entirely on high fuel, long mileage stints.

“You saw him in qualifying last year,” Komatsu told select media including Motorsport Week. 

“I don’t think he did badly. Back then he out-qualified Nico [Hulkenberg]. 

“Interlagos, Sprint weekend, FP1, then qualifying, he out-qualified Nico as well. 

I don’t treat him as a rookie in that sense.”

True enough, when Bearman jumped into the Ferrari SF-24 at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit last year, he narrowly missed out on making Q3 after just an hour of practice to get up to speed.

In Baku, Bearman qualified 11th again, this time for Haas and two places ahead of the highly-regarded one lap specialist Hulkenberg and he was able to thwart the experienced German again over a single lap in Brazil.

Bearman ‘impatient’ to unlock Haas’ one-lap potential

Bearman admitted during testing amid his programme of high-fuel running that he is getting “impatient” with regards to unlocking Haas’ one-lap potential in Melbourne.

“I’m a little impatient and want to go for it as soon as possible but I understand that this running is very important and you know this kind of strategy of using all of these laps and doing as many laps as we can really worked for the team last year and I hope it does the same again,” he said. 

“Yeah as the run goes down and we always put a new set [of tyres] on I’m really excited to see what the car can do.”

Why Haas doesn’t focus on low-fuel testing miles

Haas’ tactic of high fuel, high mileage during testing is a tactic that paid dividends before.

As Bearman said, in 2024 it helped Haas develop a car adept at tyre management, something its 2023 predecessor was catastrophically bad at.

Continuing with that methodology in this year’s pre-season testing, Komatsu explained its advantages.

“We just focused on getting answers that you cannot get during a race weekend,” he said.

“[On] race weekend you never have two sets of the same tyre compound. 

“You do low, low, high, then low, low, high, then low, low, then qualifying.

“It’s almost impossible to get answers on some test items that have a certain influence on tyre degradation and high fuel management. 

“That’s what we focused on.”

READ MORE – Why Haas isn’t treating Oliver Bearman like a ‘normal rookie’ in F1 2025

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Haas Formula 1 rookie and Ferrari academy graduate Oliver Bearman spotted several steering wheel changes on Lewis Hamilton’s car that caught his “attention”.

Bearman knows the Ferrari camp well with the Scuderia supporting the 19-year-old through junior formula, as well as handing him his Grand Prix debut at Jeddah last year in place of Carlos Sainz.

As a Ferrari test and reserve driver, Bearman has conducted several simulator and TPC tests with the Italian squad and now races at power unit customer team Haas.

Meanwhile, Hamilton has undergone the most-documented F1 move in recent history to Ferrari.

Rolling out of the garage for the first day of pre-season testing in Bahrain, Bearman spotted some new quirks on Hamilton’s Ferrari steering wheel.

“I’ve seen a few interesting things,” Bearman revealed to select media including Motorsport Week. 

“First of all, Lewis in the Ferrari, that was really cool. And seeing how much he’s changed on the steering wheel, for example, is something that caught my attention.”

Explaining further, Bearman noticed that Hamilton has rearranged Ferrari’s steering wheel layout given the differences from the Mercedes device he’d run for the previous 12 seasons.

“On his Mercedes steering wheel, the DRS button on Ferrari, it’s neutral,” Bearman revealed. 

“So, I think he moved a few things around just to save things. 

“But when changing, even me, when I went to Haas, just moving things around compared to what you’re used to is important.

“I can imagine after [more than] 10 years in the same car, you build up some habits.”

Bearman is ‘a nerd’ for F1 steering wheel changes

Bearman added that he’s not as plugged into Ferrari activities as he used to be, and that spying on Hamilton’s steering wheel is more a nerdy activity he indulged himself in.

“I knew he would change a few things on the steering wheel,” he said. 

“It happens every year, and I was more out of interest watching what changes he’s made. 

“Just like myself, I’ve done some changes on the steering wheel at Haas. 

“Yeah, it’s just an interesting thing, and I’m a bit of a nerd on that side of things.”

Bearman still getting accustomed to Haas steering wheel setup

With just three GP starts to his name, one with Ferrari and two with Haas, Bearman is still very much a rookie.

That’s why testing can prove to be so pivotal, as the art of getting accustomed to an uber-complicated F1 steering wheel is no mean feat.

“My main laps in F1 have been on the simulator with Ferrari, so I’m used to that steering wheel,” he said.

“There are a few differences with the Haas steering wheel, and it’s not quite second nature yet. 

“I still have to look down when I press buttons. But that comes with experience and more laps, and that’s what testing is all about.”

One element that Bearman has worked on over the winter is his clutch, opting for a single paddle design.

“It’s my own special clutch that I worked hard with the guys over winter to make, and so far my starts have been good, so I’m happy with that.”

Bearman’s Haas team-mate Esteban Ocon has a dual clutch set-up, but Bearman isn’t planning on adopting his more experienced counterpart’s solution any time soon.

“I’m okay with one clutch,” he said. “It works for me. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”

READ MORE – Fernando Alonso: Adrian Newey ‘impact’ at Aston to be greater than Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari

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Oliver Bearman completed three races in Formula 1 last season, but the Haas driver still considers himself a rookie heading into his first full campaign in the sport.

The Briton, 19, made his F1 debut in the Ferrari standing in for Carlos Sainz, who had surgery to remove his appendix, at the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix last March.

Finishing in seventh place for his maiden points finish, Bearman held off the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris in an impressive first showing in F1.

Bearman went on to make two more appearances in the 2024 season, twice filling in for Kevin Magnussen at Haas at the Azerbaijan and Sao Paulo Grands Prix.

The youngest driver to score points on debut – and the youngest driver to compete for Ferrari – the 19-year-old was signed to a multi-term deal with Haas last summer.

Speaking ahead of the team’s car launch at the F1 75 live event, the Formula 2 graduate expressed how he still feels like a newcomer to the sport.

“Yeah I would still consider myself a rookie,” Bearman told select media including Motorsport Week.

“I think I’m not officially a rookie but I think that’s a bit harsh.

“There are certainly some rookies with more mileage in F1 than me who are still official rookies.

“I think it’s harsh to not call me a rookie, I still feel like a rookie.

“There are still tracks that I haven’t been to and I still haven’t done a full season in F1.

“Which in my mind makes me a rookie but I am very lucky to have done three races and a lot of mileage behind the scenes.

“I’m feeling ready for my rookie season.”

F1 rookie reveals driving test failure

A member of the Ferrari Driver Academy since 2022, Bearman made his single-seater debut in the ADAC Formula 4 Championship five years ago at the age of just 15.

After the news that fellow rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli had passed his driving test, Bearman was asked how his test went, which led to a shocking revelation.

“I passed it a few years ago since you can pass at 17 here [the UK] not 18 like in Italy,” he divulged.

Bearman, however, went on to admit: “I did pass [on my] second time – I shouldn’t have told [you] that.

“I didn’t stop at a ‘stop’ sign, I didn’t burn through, I slowed down and I was crawling but you are supposed to stop.

“We don’t have those on racetracks so that was my first sighting of a ‘stop’ sign.

“But typical me, or typical probably racing driver, I thought I could pass my test without any lessons.

“So, that’s probably where I went wrong after that.”

Bearman admits to ‘some nerves’ ahead of new season

Under the guidance of Team Principal Ayao Komatsu in 2024, Haas recorded its best finish in the Constructors’ Standings since 2018, with a seventh-place finish.

Esteban Ocon joins the American outfit for 2025 alongside Bearman, as the new pairing looks to replicate the success that former drivers Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg brought last year.

Asked if he was feeling anxious before the first race in Australia, Bearman expressed how there won’t be “any more pressure” than last year in his opinion.

He explained: “Of course, there’ll be some nerves sitting there on the grid [in Melbourne].

“But I don’t feel that there’ll be any more pressure than there was in Jeddah, in Baku, in Brazil – if anything there’s even less.

“I have so many opportunities this year to prove myself but I don’t need to do anything crazy to start with.

“I just want to build up, step by step and I’m sure in Australia I’ll be feeling the nerves.

“But nothing out of the ordinary.”

READ MORE: Why Haas isn’t treating Oliver Bearman like a ‘normal rookie’ in F1 2025

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The 2025 Formula 1 driver line-up at Haas pits experience versus youth with Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman.

Haas levelled up in 2024 as it entered a new era under Team Principal Ayao Komatsu.

A technical alliance was formed with auto giants Toyota and on-track the team successfully brought performance upgrades to the VF-24 throughout the course of the campaign.

That saw them take the fight for sixth in the Constructors’ standings all the way to the season finale at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, coming up just short of Alpine by seven points (65 to 58).

The 65 points scored by Haas last year was a dramatic improvement compared to the return of 12 in 2023, which saw the team rooted to the bottom of the standings.

With Toyota bolstering its technical capabilities, Haas has the tools at its disposal to push on in 2025 and it is doing so with an exciting driver line-up.

The capably quick F1 veterans Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg have departed Haas for pastures new, so what can the team expect from GP winner Ocon and exciting rookie Bearman in 2025.

Oliver Bearman

Against the odds, Bearman made three Grand Prix starts in 2024. 

His sparkling F1 debut at Jeddah with Ferrari was backed up by a point with Haas in Baku. 

A difficult day in the Brazil rain at Interlagos in November showed there’s work to do but Haas has a promising British teenager on its hands. 

All Bearman has to do in 2025 is keep up the good work.

His promise is clear for all to see and its no wonder Haas moved early to sign him to a multi-year deal, announcing his contract last July.

Upon signing with Haas, Bearman said: “To be one of the very few people who get to do the thing what they dreamed of as a child is something truly incredible.

“To Gene [Haas], Ayao and everyone at Haas, thank you for believing in me and for trusting me to represent your team.”

Esteban Ocon

Ocon was all smiles at Yas Marina during the 2024 post-season test as his life with Haas began.

The end of his Alpine tenure was fraught with challenges but second place at Interlagos showed the Frenchman is still a talented F1 wheelman. 

With an exciting rookie team-mate alongside him, Ocon must show Bearman who is boss in 2025.

But more important is the fact that as the first-ever GP winner to represent Haas on the F1 circuit, Ocon must lead the team forward.

Upon confirming the move last July, Ocon said: “I am thrilled to embark on this new chapter in my Formula 1 career and join MoneyGram Haas F1 Team from the start of the 2025 season.

“I’ll be joining a very ambitious racing team, whose spirit, work ethic, and undeniable upward trajectory has really impressed me.”

It would appear the feeling is mutual as Komatsu, who was Ocon’s race engineer during the Frenchman’s maiden run in a F1 car with Lotus in 2014, said: “It was vital we had a driver with experience in beside Bearman next year, but Esteban’s still young with a lot to prove as well.

“I think we have a hungry, dynamic driver pairing and I look forward to welcoming Esteban into MoneyGram Haas F1 Team for 2025.”

READ MORE – Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon confirmed for inaugural Haas TPC run

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Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon will participate in the Haas Formula 1 team’s first-ever TPC running this week at the Spanish Jerez circuit.

TPC (Testing of Previous Car) regulations permit F1 teams to carry out mileage in two-year-old machines.

Predominantly this is used to evaluate rookie drivers, but teams can use 1,000 kilometres of running with existing Grand Prix drivers. 

Haas’ test at Jerez will be split across two days, using the 2023 VF-23 car.

Bearman will be first out on Wednesday, followed by Toyota-backed driver Ritomo Miyata in the afternoon.

Ocon will then go out first on Thursday with Miyata completing the test in the afternoon once again.

This will mark Ocon’s second outing with Haas after he made his debut with the team in the Abu Dhabi post-season test in the VF-24.

For Bearman, this marks the beginning of his full-time F1 career, after multiple FP1 appearances with Haas last year alongside two GP starts at Baku and Sao Paulo.

The TPC test will be Bearman and Ocon’s first as team-mates.

Miyata, meanwhile, contested the Formula 2 championship with Rodin Motorsport under Toyota Gazoo Racing colours in 2024 and his involvement in the TPC outing is part of Haas’ technical alliance with the Japanese marque.

Miyata’s single-seater career will continue in F2 this year with ART Grand Prix.

Haas’ TPC debut thanks to Toyota

As the smallest team on the grid, with approximately 300 employees, Haas has never had the opportunity to spend time and resources with a TPC programme.

That has all changed now thanks to a technical alliance with Toyota, which was announced in October 2024.

The Japanese marque has committed to providing staff and drivers to assist Haas for TPC running.

Speaking to the media when the alliance was announced, Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu explained why the squad hadn’t committed to TPC running in the past and the benefits it will gain from doing so with Toyota henceforth.

“TPC is very important in terms of training personnel,” Komatsu explained. 

“We have just over 300 people, we have no contingency in personnel, so if let’s say one race engineer, one performance engineer decides to leave or has a programme not to attend a race we are really struggling, on the limit all the time, and in order to improve the organisation you cannot be that kind of survival stage as a baseline. 

“We’ve got to build up our organisation, so through TPC we can start training our engineers, our mechanics, having backup people there.”

READ MORE – Kevin Magnussen Exclusive: Haas F1 ‘feels like family’

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Stand-out rookie performances from Oliver Bearman and Franco Colapinto show the strength of Formula 1 academy programmes, according to Formula 2 and Formula 3 CEO Bruno Michel.

For the first time in series history, F1 welcomed the same 20 drivers onto the 2024 grid that saw out the previous campaign. Lewis Hamilton’s signing with Ferrari for 2025 has blown that wide open and the driver market has been in flux ever since.

With the grid remaining stagnant before that blockbuster move, leaving the likes of Liam Lawson on the sidelines in spite of his capable 2023 cameo, detractors argued that F1 wasn’t doing enough to bring fresh blood into the sport. Now that has all changed.

Bearman’s starring performance at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in place of Carlos Sainz at Ferrari paved the way for his Haas signing for 2025. Colapinto has mesmerised those at Williams after his mid-season replacement of Logan Sargeant, Andrea Kimi Antonelli is taking the world by storm and Lawson has got his second chance at Faenza for the rest of 2024.

READ MORE: Liam Lawson’s RB F1 promotion tipped to be Red Bull audition

Fresh blood will join the 2025 F1 grid

Antonelli is already confirmed to be joining Bearman on next year’s F1 grid, and the Italian teenager will go straight into a top team at Mercedes. The PREMA F2 team-mates will be joined by fellow rookie Jack Doohan, who will be partnering Alpine’s Pierre Gasly. All signs point towards Lawson’s six-round trial at RB as an audition for a 2025 contract at either Red Bull-owned team. Moreover, Colapinto’s impressive debut at Williams is sparking talks of a two-year loan to Sauber/Audi.

All of these drivers, although young, have shown they are adept at an F1 level, quick on the track, and well-rounded off of it. But why is that?

It is all down to the common denominator that connects the young stars – they are all members of an F1 team academy programme.

Bearman is a part of the Ferrari Driver Academy, Antonelli has been a part of the Mercedes family since he was 12 years old, Lawson is a Red Bull Junior and Doohan is the first Alpine Academy Driver to graduate to F1 with the Anglo-French team (with Oscar Piastri and Zhou Guanyu before him graduating with rival outfits).

Colapinto meanwhile, progressed to F1 after just half a season in F2, having signed with the Williams Academy ahead of his 2023 F3 campaign.

F1 teams select academy drivers at a young age and help guide them through the single-seater pyramid. Not only that, but they get privileged access to how an F1 team operates, through physical and mental preparation, simulator training, media tutoring and driver briefings. F1 academy prospects are a relatively modern phenomenon.

READ MORE: Williams in discussions with Sauber/Audi over Franco Colapinto F1 loan deal

How F1 academies helped prepare Oliver Bearman, Franco Colapinto and company

Motorsport Week spoke to F2 and F3 CEO Michel in a select media session and asked why he felt the academy drivers progressing to F1 were doing so with such grace.

“[Academies] became completely fundamental in the pyramid,” Michel said. “In, F2 half of the grid is coming from F1 teams’ academies. In Formula 3, I think we had one-third of the grid that was coming from F1 teams’ academies. Of course, it’s important. Number one, because the academies are giving the drivers financial support to try to complete their season. But also next to that, the academies are preparing the drivers in the environment of an F1 team. To learn and to be ready when they get to Formula 1.

“Doohan is going to be racing for Alpine next year. Doohan has been working all season this year with Alpine. In the simulators during the race weekends. He’s at the back of the garage to absorb everything during every race. That’s also a very, very important preparation. That is outside the driving skill itself.

“When you enter into a Formula 1 garage, you have 60 people and each of them has a very specific role. You need to understand how it’s working. Life is much more complicated in F1 than it is in F2 where you have only 12 people and in F3 where you have only 10 people. So that’s also the kind of thing that they have to learn and manage the pressure and work with the people.”

That’s why in Michel’s eyes, drivers who are part of academies have an advantage…

“Probably not in the driving skill,” Michel said. “But in the management of the environment skill, an advantage, yes.”

READ MORE: Oliver Bearman details Lewis Hamilton F1 Baku battle

Oliver Bearman and Franco Colapinto starred in Baku

The results speak for themselves and the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was a prime example. Bearman, standing in for Kevin Magnussen at Haas, earned a top-10 result, and Colapinto scored his maiden points in just his second Grand Prix.

In F2 at Baku, Alpine Academy driver Gabriele Mini stepped up from F3 to take Bearman’s seat for the weekend at Prema and Williams Academy driver Luke Browning also made his F2 debut. Mini scored a podium in the Sprint and Browning scored four points across the two races courtesy of seventh in the Feature. That shows that F1 academies, combined with the single-seater pyramid are having the desired effect on preparing the next generation of Grand Prix drivers.

Bruno Michel: ‘the single-seater pyramid is working’

“At the end of the day, why is the pyramid there? It’s to prepare drivers for Formula 1,” explained Michel. “We want to make sure that when they are coming into Formula 1, they are ready. In Baku, two F2 drivers jumped into F1 and were immediately on the spot and scoring points.

“It means that the pyramid is working, and that’s really what is important.

“We are trying to make sure that the evolution of the F3 car and the F2 cars towards F1 are the correct one, and that the drivers are getting the right experience, but it’s not only the car. It’s also the fact that they’re racing alongside F1 on the race weekend. It’s also about the format of the weekend.

“There are a lot of things that we do that prepare the drivers for F1 at the end of the day. It’s all the systems that the car has, because the drivers have to start to work with the DRS, with all the environments that the FIA is creating with the race control, the marshalling system. There are all these things that the drivers need to be prepared for that are going to, when they arrive in the F1 garage one day, if they do, they are not going to be totally lost.”

For the drivers arriving in F1 right now, from Colapinto to Bearman, Lawson to Antonelli – not a single one of them looks lost and the sport is all the better for it as fresh blood comes through.

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