During an Interview for the High Performance Podcast, Haas F1 team principal Ayao Komatsu praised Ollie Bearman, describing him as an “amazing talent” as he recalls the early stages of the young talent’s career and a transformative 2025 F1 season.
“Oh, they’re very, very different,” says Komatsu about drivers Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman, whom he describes as an “exciting young kid.”
“Ollie [Bearman], he’s such an exciting young kid.”
Komatsu recalls his first impression of Bearman during FP1 at the 2023 F1 Mexico City GP
Bearman’s first outing as a test driver for the Haas F1 team came at the 2023 Mexico City GP in FP1, which Komatsu recalled during the podcast. At the time, Komatsu was “most impressed” by Bearman’s “maturity” as well as his “understanding of the bigger picture.” This, combined with Bearman’s quick learning, convinced Komatsu of the young Briton’s role as “future talent.”
“We’ve been working with him since he was 18. I just couldn’t believe it. The first time I worked with him in Mexico, FP1, 18 years old.
“The maturity he had in understanding what the team needs from him, what the program is all about, what role he needed to play. Not just, ‘Okay, I want to prove to everyone in the world how quick I am,’ right?
“Speed was clear from day one, but what I was most impressed [by] was his maturity, understanding of the bigger picture, understanding what role he’s playing. And how quickly he learns, right? So, to me, it was clear that he was a future talent.”
Convincing performances from Bearman ahead of rookie F1 season
Ahead of his rookie F1 season in the 2025 season, Bearman already had the chance to display his talent not only during FP1 sessions for Haas, but also three GP weekends during the 2024 season. Bearman made his F1 debut at the 2024 Saudi Arabian GP for Ferrari, when he stepped in for Carlos Sainz. Later that season, he raced for Haas in the Azerbaijan and Brazilian GP. After showing solid performances during those outings, it was a “no-brainer” to sign Bearman on as a main driver for the 2025 F1 season, says Komatsu.
“Then, in ’24, we worked with him through six FP1s.
“Again, every single time he proved like, ‘okay, this kid is a real deal’. And then of course he did amazing things with Ferrari in Saudi, P7. When he jumped in for us in Baku, and then Interlagos. He did an absolutely amazing job.
“So, it was no brainer that we wanted to sign him as a race driver last year for ’25.”
Bearman struggled with consistency in his debut F1 season
While Komatsu hails Bearman as an “amazing talent,” he also recognized that the young driver struggled to maintain consistency over a race weekend in the early stages of his F1 debut.
The Haas F1 team principal points to big mistakes in the 2025 Monaco GP and 2025 British GP as negative examples.
“Then again, the biggest challenge for us was to build up the consistency. You know, speed, again, is no doubt. He’s incredibly quick, amazing talent. Such a positive kid as well.
“But again, like a beginning of the season, even though he showed the flashes of talent, he just struggled to put a weekend together. Some silly mistakes like Monaco, overtaking a car under a red flag, or Silverstone. Car was so quick, right? So quick.
“And then at the end of the session, when there’s a red flag, he decided to attack the entry and having a crash. And of course, under red flag to have a crash is a huge, huge no-no, right? So gets a 10-place grid penalty, right?”
In reaction to the inconsistencies in Bearman’s rookie F1 season, Haas worked closely with the young Briton to improve.
“So, things like that really was a tough lesson. But then again, you know, we all together, you know, work together and then worked with everybody around Ollie [Bearman], Ollie’s engineers, Ollie himself, of course. And then we just came away.”
The 2025 F1 Singapore GP marked a significant milestone in Bearman’s level of consistency
The hard work in building up their young talent paid off, as Komatsu points out that by the time the 2025 F1 Singapore GP came around, Bearman had significantly improved his consistency, showing solid performances across the remaining race weekends of the 2025 F1 season.
“Finally, in Singapore, he was able to put the weekend together. And Singapore is a tough track, and he has never raced there before. And Esteban was very, very quick from the beginning. But that was the weekend where [we said]; ‘Okay, right. Good. Now we’ve finally done it. This is the baseline.’
“Then if you look at all the races after that, you know, he’s been very, very consistent putting weekend together.”
Haas team principal Komatsu names the 2025 F1 Mexico City GP as a highlight of Bearman’s debut season
A particular highlight of the rookie Haas driver’s came at the 2025 F1 Mexico City GP, where Bearman finished in P4, holding his own against top drivers such as Max Verstappen and George Russell. For Komatsu, that weekend showed how much Bearman improved during his F1 debut year.
“Then that Mexico P4, what can I say?
“It was incredible. He had a Max [Verstappen] behind him [in the] first stint. And he had a George [Russell] and Antonelli behind [in the] second stint.
“Third stint, George [Russell] and Piastri, right? All top teams, top drivers. Then, from outside, it looks like, ‘Does he feel pressure?’
“Of course, he’s feeling the pressure. He didn’t put a foot wrong. Amazing.
“The amount of improvements he made, maturity as a human being, amazing guy.”
