Ferrari have made British teenager Oliver Bearman considered one of their reserve drivers for the 2024 System 1 season.
Bearman, 18, joined the Ferrari Driver Academy in 2021 and made his F1 apply session debut in 2023 as he featured for Haas in Mexico Metropolis, earlier than returning to the cockpit on the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Bearman will share Ferrari’s 2024 reserve driver duties with Antonio Giovinazzi and Robert Shwartzman, with the trio available to assist or step in for Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
“Oliver Bearman, the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy scholar at present racing in System 2 with the Prema workforce, may also tackle the position of Reserve Driver, able to step in if a race driver is incapacitated, a job he’ll share with Antonio Giovinazzi and Robert Shwartzman,” Ferrari stated in a press release on Saturday.
“These final two are additionally participating within the WEC (World Endurance Championship) on the wheel of the Ferrari 499 P Hypercar, numbers 51 and 83 respectively.”
Bearman, who may also drive a second System 2 season for Prema Racing in 2024, completed sixth in his debut marketing campaign within the feeder collection final yr, profitable three function races and one dash race.
Competing for Prema in System 3 in 2022, Bearman completed third within the championship.
Ferrari additionally confirmed that Arthur Leclerc, the youthful brother of Charles, will turn into one of many workforce’s improvement drivers.
The announcement comes days after Ferrari introduced a contract extension for Charles Leclerc, whose earlier deal had been set to run out on the finish of 2024.
Sainz’s future with the workforce stays unsure, with talks understood to be ongoing over an extension to his present deal, which additionally expires on the finish of the upcoming marketing campaign.
The Italian workforce stated that each Bearman and Arthur Leclerc will function alongside Charles Leclerc and Sainz at a three-day tyre testing session for Pirelli in Barcelona subsequent week.
“On 29 and 30 January Charles and Carlos will probably be on the wheel of final yr’s SF23, finishing up assessments for the game’s sole tyre provider,” Ferrari stated.
“Additionally on the twenty ninth, Arthur Leclerc will get his very first style of driving a System 1 automotive, from the cockpit of the 2022 F1-75. On Tuesday thirtieth, Charles and Carlos will share each the SF23 and the F1-75, whereas on thirty first Oliver Bearman will probably be alone on observe within the F1-75.”
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