Oliver Bearman is looking to lay his Formula 1 foundation when he steps into Kevin Magunssen’s Haas at this weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The British driver has been confirmed in a permanent Haas seat from next season and made his F1 debut with Ferrari as a last-minute stand-in for Carlos Sainz at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix earlier this year.
Bearman caught the eye with a seventh-placed finish in Jeddah and, with Magnussen banned in Baku after collecting 12 penalty points, he has another opportunity to impress before the step up next season.
Taking part in his first full F1 weekend, Bearman was keeping his ambitions realistic in an attempt to learn more about the challenge ahead.
“It is nice to be back first of all, not the circumstances I would have hoped but it is a great opportunity to build up my experience and get a full weekend under my belt, with some notice this time,” he said.
“I knew it was coming, which was helpful. I just want to build up step by step. Of course, knowing I am going to race is a big help, also the fact I’m going to be doing FP1 and FP2, just to build it up, not take any risks.
“I just want to build up step by step and because we have time to do that, we have three sessions this weekend and I just want to maximise myself and gain experience, it will be the most sessions I’ve ever done in F1 in a single time. It will just be a case of building it up and the enjoyment is coming anyway.
“Of course, I have been training hard but I have been doing that anyway because I am racing next year. My preparations have been looking towards next year since the announcement I would be racing with the team.”
Bearman admitted the prospect of racing for Haas this season had been there for a while as Magnussen sat on the cusp of a penalty – which the Dane duly received after collecting more points following an incident with Pierre Gasly at the Italian Grand Prix.
“It has been a while that Kevin has been close to a race ban, so I knew it was a potential possibility to jump into the car at any point. If I could have chosen it would have been a race that didn’t clash with F2 but you don’t choose when to jump into F1 and every opportunity is one that you take.
“I have been really preparing for next year and part of that means I am ready now so it is a great opportunity to show how I am ready now, it is a great opportunity to show how I’ve improved and what I can do.”
While he would have liked to have not had a clash with his Formula 2 campaign, racing in Baku could work in Bearman’s favour after his dominant display on the streets of the Azeri capital.
Having qualified on pole, Bearman then won both the sprint race and the feature race for Prema and is ready to tap into those experiences.
“Last year went pretty well and I was excited to come here in F2 and of course to make the step to F1 this weekend is a great experience, I’m really looking forward to it,” he added.
“I got a lot of confidence at this track last year, from the outside it was a very clean weekend but from the inside, I hit the wall in every single session so I am going to be trying to tone that down a little bit and just have a clean weekend and enjoy it as well.
“It is definitely a tough track, it is my second race in F1 and my second street track that I am racing so it has been a tough draw. If I could have picked two races it probably wouldn’t have been these ones.
“Then again I had success here last year and it went well, the difficult part is building up the confidence on a track like this because the walls are close…I did touch the wall quite a few times last year, most notably in qualifying where I bent the suspension, which wasn’t my finest moment.
“I managed to get the pole but I don’t think I will get away with that this year in F1, so I am going to leave a bit more of a safety margin, especially in the first sessions and I think the main goal is to build up the confidence and be confident in the car and myself before I start to push and find the limits.”
Watch: Has McLaren Picked Lando as it's #1 F1 Driver? - Azerbaijan GP Preview
