{"id":800441,"date":"2026-07-14T20:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T20:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/800441\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T20:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T20:46:09","slug":"ollie-bearman-hailed-as-class-act-after-emotional-ayrton-senna-lotus-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/800441\/","title":{"rendered":"Ollie Bearman hailed as “class act” after emotional Ayrton Senna Lotus drive"},"content":{"rendered":"

British Formula 1 driver Ollie Bearman has been praised by fans and branded an all-round “class act” after an emotional run in Ayrton Senna’s legendary 1985 Lotus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old was invited to drive the famous\u00a0black-and-gold Lotus 97T around the Silverstone circuit alongside former F1 driver and Sky Sports analyst Karun Chandhok<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For Bearman, stepping into the cockpit of the car that carried Senna to his maiden grand\u00a0prix victory at Estoril was an incredibly emotional experience.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a huge step back in time,” Bearman said before firing up the engine. “Seeing the car that he raced and won his first race in is quite an emotional moment.”<\/p>\n

The Haas F1 driver was brought to tears as he returned to the pitlane after completing a few laps of his home grand prix circuit in the iconic machinery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That was an incredibly special experience,” he reflected. “Sometimes you have these days in racing where it reminds you of why you fell in love with the sport.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

His reaction to the experience resonated with fans. “What a grateful chap Ollie is, hands down one of the most respected drivers on the grid right now,” one fan commented on YouTube, while another added: “He\u2019s crying because it\u2019s Senna\u2019s car, the fact that this is what racing is. RAW speed, nothing but man and machine. We\u2019ve lost track of that.”<\/p>\n

“The kid is a true enthusiast. So passionate that he cries to drive such a legend of\u00a0motorsport,” someone else posted, and another comment read: “Ollie is a proper racer. A respectful guy. All-round class act.”<\/p>\n

Further reactions included: “Brought tears to my eyes, my late brother and I grew up during the Ayrton Senna age and to see the emotional impact on Ollie, who wasn’t even born yet hit me right in the heart. I have a newfound admiration for Ollie,” and, “The pure emotion on Ollie’s face was the ultimate sign of pure respect. Such a humble kid.”<\/p>\n

We want your opinion!<\/p>\n

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n

Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n

– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British Formula 1 driver Ollie Bearman has been praised by fans and branded an all-round “class act” after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,814,817,813,816,5242,375593,320529,85,1511],"class_list":["post-800441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-belgian-gp","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-oliver-bearman","tag-ollie-bearman-hailed-as-class-act-after-emotional-ayrton-senna-lotus-drive","tag-spa-francorchamps","tag-sports","tag-trendingteam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800441","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=800441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}