"Don’t overdo it": Guenther Steiner on chat he had with Ferrari sensation Ollie Bearman before his first Free Practice session with Haas

Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner shared details from a 2023 conversation with Oliver Bearman, who made his debut with Ferrari in Jeddah.

The second Grand Prix of the 2024 F1 season took place at the 6.174km-long Jeddah Corniche Circuit. Red Bull dominated once again with a consecutive 1-2 finish sealed by Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, respectively. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc finished third.

Leclerc's teammate Carlos Sainz was absent from Saudi Arabian GP due to surgery for his appendicitis. To fill the void, Bearman debuted in the #38 Scarlet Ferrari and scored an impressive P7 finish, ahead of Scuderia's future driver Lewis Hamilton (P9).

The Brit's remarkable run for Ferrari at the 50-lap race was nothing short of extraordinary and garnered praises from motorsports pundits around the globe. However, this was not the first time the F2 driver ventured into the highest form of open-wheel racing.

Back in 2023, Bearman, under the eye of the team principal Guenther Steiner, ran during two FP1 sessions for Haas — at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico and the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.

Steiner recently disclosed his small talk with Bearman before the youngster kicked off his Free Practise stint. The former team principal said, via an official F1 release:

"Before Ollie drove, I sat down with him, but not at length – we had maybe 10 minutes. I basically said, ‘Don’t overdo it’. I never had the fear he would do something silly by trying to impress."

The 58-year-old added:

"I got the feeling very quickly that he knew what he needed to do. He was clearly not the kind of person who you ask him something and he says ‘yes’ and thinks something different."

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Oliver Bearman's seamless debut lauded by the future Ferrari driver

Oliver Bearman was polesitter for the F2 race at Jeddah, but got the call up to drive the SF24 in a moment's notice. The 18-year-old didn't get much of a chance to practice in the car and also failed to qualify for the Q3 session, missing the P10 spot by a whisker.

Despite this, Bearman looked comfortable in the car during the main race and raked in the maximum number of overtakes at the 27-turn circuit. A total of 25 passes were witnessed during the Saudi Arabian GP, out of which Bearman's tally stood at four.

His top-notch display caught Lewis Hamilton's attention, who praised the way in which his compatriot gelled into the SF24, a far cry from the F2 cars he was used to The Brit said (via Sky Sports):

"To be pulled out of your class and put straight into a Ferrari, a top team, and have to go straight into practice without long runs...he did such a phenomenal job this weekend and it just shows that he's really a bright future star."

Bearman currently stands at P10 in the drivers' championship and would run again for Ferrari at the Australian GP if Sainz does not fully recover on time.