{"id":256952,"date":"2025-11-02T05:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T05:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/256952\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T05:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T05:44:10","slug":"lewis-hamilton-replacement-has-already-emerged-as-ferrari-make-contract-decision-f1-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/256952\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton replacement has already emerged as Ferrari make contract decision | F1 | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lewis Hamilton<\/a>, the first Brit in over two decades to race full-time for Ferrari<\/a>, has paved the way for another rising British star in Formula One. The historic Italian team appear to be facing a pivotal decision regarding their seven-time world champion. As he approaches his 41st birthday in January, there is growing uncertainty about his long-term future with the team, amid reports that senior figures are hesitant to extend his contract beyond the 2026 season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If Hamilton’s performance remains competitive and he continues to excel, Ferrari<\/a> will undoubtedly be pleased. However, if this turns out to be his final year in F1, it seems increasingly likely that they will turn to the current sensation: Oliver Bearman. He was merely a teenager when he made his F1 debut for Ferrari<\/a> last year, earning points as a young driver when Carlos Sainz<\/a> was sidelined due to appendicitis.<\/p>\n

Now aged 20, Bearman has discovered that a first full season can be a steep learning curve. His talent has always been evident, and now it’s beginning to shine through as he finds his footing at Haas.<\/p>\n

Bearman has now scored points in each of the last three races, most notably finishing fourth in Mexico last Sunday.<\/p>\n

Not only did he equal Haas’ best ever result in their decade-long history, but he achieved it by surpassing Max Verstappen<\/a> and George Russell<\/a> on track.<\/p>\n

It was a demonstration of not just talent but also courage, even if he did confess afterwards that he was “s***ting himself” whilst competing wheel-to-wheel with Verstappen.<\/p>\n

Bearman already had a significant following in the F1 paddock, and now many of them support him to take the next step when the chance arises.<\/p>\n

He remains a Ferrari<\/a> driver, effectively on loan at their customer team to groom him at the pinnacle of single-seater motorsport.<\/p>\n

The aspiration was that he might one day succeed Hamilton and the universally respected Martin Brundle is among those who wish to see it happen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“The moment that there’s a seat at Ferrari<\/a> for whatever reason, then Bearman should be in it as far as I’m concerned,” he said about the young Brit.<\/p>\n

It will be a sorrowful day for F1 and all of British sport when Hamilton eventually retires, but if Bearman can maintain his upward trajectory, perhaps Ferrari<\/a> will continue to represent the British flag after the seven-time champion has retired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton, the first Brit in over two decades to race full-time for Ferrari, has paved the way…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,817,132040,830,132043,35119,829,151553,826,813,835,823,151552,806,805,803,804,5242,85],"class_list":["post-256952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-f1-section","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-latest","tag-f1-news","tag-f1-standings","tag-f1-table","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula-one","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-lewis-hamilton-contract","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-oliver-bearman","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}