{"id":703594,"date":"2026-05-30T04:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T04:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/703594\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T04:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T04:40:13","slug":"why-ollie-bearman-is-taking-belief-and-motivation-from-kimi-antonellis-really-cool-battle-with-george-russell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/703594\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Ollie Bearman is taking \u2018belief and motivation\u2019 from Kimi Antonelli\u2019s \u2018really cool\u2019 battle with George Russell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ollie Bearman has explained how the developing battle between Kimi Antonelli and George Russell is giving him extra belief and motivation, with the Haas driver eager to follow his former F2 team mate to front of the Formula 1 field.<\/p>\n

Bearman<\/a> and Antonelli<\/a> were paired at Prema Racing during the 2024 F2 season, after which the Briton secured a full-time F1 promotion with Haas<\/a> \u2013 via his spectacular stand-in Ferrari showing in Saudi Arabia<\/a> \u2013 and the Italian stepped up with Mercedes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While Bearman is building up in the midfield, Antonelli immediately slotted into a front-running seat, scoring three podiums and 150 points across his rookie campaign, and starting F1\u2019s new era with four wins from the first five rounds of 2026.<\/p>\n

In doing so, Antonelli has taken the fight to more experienced Mercedes team mate Russell \u2013 their intra-team rivalry stepping up a gear at the recent Canadian Grand Prix<\/a> when they went wheel-to-wheel for victory in the Sprint and main race.<\/p>\n

Asked for his thoughts on what unfolded in Montreal in an appearance on the Drive To Wynn podcast<\/a>, Bearman said: \u201cThose two are operating at an incredible level. It was really, really cool to see the battle, how they pushed each other to the absolute limit, but still gave each other respect, which is incredibly important between team mates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoyed watching, and I also enjoyed watching Kimi taking the fight at the front. Of course, I know him very well, he was my team mate in F2, and it\u2019s really, really nice to see. I\u2019m enjoying watching them, and long may it continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bearman has made a stellar start to his second full-time F1 season with Haas, sitting ninth in the Drivers\u2019 Championship<\/a> with 18 points from five rounds \u2013 including a best result of fifth at the Chinese Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

And seeing what the likes of Antonelli and Red Bull<\/a>\u2019s Isack Hadjar<\/a> can do when given the chance in more competitive machinery is only fuelling the youngster\u2019s confidence for the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also cool to see those guys who are fighting against people who have been in F1 for a long time \u2013 they\u2019re very well known and very highly rated as well,\u201d said Bearman, with Hadjar going up against four-time World Champion Max Verstappen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not fighting at the front, I\u2019m not in a top-four car, unlike those two, but seeing that they can take the fight to their team mates, and take the fight to the other competitors around them, also gives me a sense of belief for myself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was fighting with them in F2 and F3, and now they\u2019re fighting with the top guys [in F1], so it\u2019s another proof to me that one day I can do it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bearman added: \u201cIt\u2019s also motivation, because of course it\u2019s great to see the young guys winning, but I\u2019m also one of the young guys and I would really want to be there soon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ollie Bearman has explained how the developing battle between Kimi Antonelli and George Russell is giving him extra…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-703594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703594","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=703594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}