MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Oliver Bearman made his Formula One practice debut in Mexico City on Friday and, aged 18, became the youngest British driver to take part in a championship grand prix weekend.
The Ferrari-backed Formula Two driver took over race regular Kevin Magnussen’s Ferrari-powered Haas car for the hour-long session at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez as part of a requirement for teams to give rookies track time.
The team’s trackside engineering director Ayao Komatsu said Bearman had exceeded expectations.
“Not that my expectation was low, but that was so professional and he didn’t put a foot wrong,” he told reporters.
“The communication and the feedback were really good as well. So really, I’ve got nothing to complain about. It was a really impressive FP1.”
Bearman will also take part in practice in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix next month.
“My first goal was to have a clean session and we did that, so that was the main thing. Secondly, I got up to speed quite fast, I had confidence in the car,” said the Briton.
“It was my first time on the soft tyres, my first time doing a long run, and I’ll do better the second time. But for my first FP1 I’m happy.”
The previous youngest British driver to take part in a practice session was McLaren’s Lando Norris at the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix when he was also 18.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Shri Navaratnam)
