Ferrari academy product Oliver Bearman\u00a0has said it\u2019s been thrilling to watch Lewis Hamilton\u2019s resurgence in 2026, even if it is \u201cnot ideal\u201d for his own hopes of driving for the Italian team one day.<\/p>\n
British driver Bearman joined Ferrari engine customer Haas on a loan deal last year and looks likely to stay for 2027.<\/p>\n
Bearman actually made his Formula 1 debut for Ferrari as stand-in for the unwell Carlos Sainz at the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, but has not raced for the team again.<\/p>\n
There was speculation in 2025 that Bearman might be fast-tracked to the Italian team full-time during Hamilton\u2019s struggle for form, but that situation has changed completely this year.<\/p>\n
Hamilton has been a man rejuvenated under the new regulations and claimed his first win in Ferrari red at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix — the seven-time world champion went into the summer break second in the world championship behind Kimi Antonelli.<\/p>\n
Hamilton shared the Barcelona podium with fellow Brits Lando Norris and George Russell.<\/p>\n
Bearman admitted seeing the moment was bittersweet.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an F1 fan and a Lewis fan as well, it\u2019s pretty cool to see him performing at the level he is,\u201d Bearman told F1\u2019s Beyond the Grid podcast. \u201cSeeing him on the top step in Barcelona was quite a special moment for British F1 in general. It was three Brits on the podium, with the best driver we\u2019ve ever seen in P1. That\u2019s something pretty special.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, in terms of my future, that\u2019s not ideal. But I\u2019m still young. I\u2019m only 21. I\u2019m not in a huge rush, and for me, staying at Haas for the foreseeable is not a bad thing. I feel like there\u2019s a lot to learn at this team. There\u2019s a lot to still achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bearman still appears to be Ferrari\u2019s most obvious long-term driver option, but seeing a clear path to his elevation is difficult.<\/p>\n
The length of Hamilton\u2019s deal has never been made public, but he has repeatedly said it goes beyond 2026 — sources have told ESPN that it runs until the end of 2027 at least.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc signed an extension to remain with the team \u201cfor the coming seasons.\u201d Sources in the paddock have suggested to ESPN that the extension goes into 2030 and potentially beyond.<\/p>\n
That locks Ferrari\u2019s line-up down for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n
Although Bearman\u2019s ultimate goal remains the same, he gave a clear indication he would be happy to look elsewhere for a drive if the Ferrari option remained closed off for too long.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal remains to be a Ferrari driver one day,\u201d he explained. \u201cOf course, I don\u2019t want to be sitting around for three, four, five years waiting for a seat to become available because there are no guarantees. You can be wasting your best years.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy ultimate goal is maybe a bit selfish, and that\u2019s OK, because that\u2019s the reason I\u2019m here: I want to be fighting for world championships. So, if I can have that opportunity wherever, I will take it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ferrari academy product Oliver Bearman\u00a0has said it\u2019s been thrilling to watch Lewis Hamilton\u2019s resurgence in 2026, even if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,86971,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-844787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-f1-sports-auto-racing-league-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}