‘I gained a lot of respect for him’ – Bearman praises Leclerc for ‘priceless’ advice ahead of whirlwind F1 debut

Ollie Bearman has paid tribute to Charles Leclerc for the crucial role the full-time Ferrari driver played during his super-sub performance at this year’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, saying “I saw what type of person he was”.

Bearman had started the Jeddah event competing in the F2 feeder series but got called up by the Scuderia when Carlos Sainz fell ill with appendicitis and underwent surgery, giving the Briton a surprise F1 debut at just 18 years of age.

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With only one practice session under his belt, Bearman almost made it through to Q3 in his first qualifying session and progressed to seventh in the race to score points on debut – impressing many in the paddock in the process.

Speaking to the High Performance Podcast, Bearman shared some more insight into the weekend from his perspective and the role Leclerc – with more than 100 race starts and a handful of race wins under his belt – played behind the scenes.

“He was super helpful,” said Bearman. “I think he understood the difficulty of the position I was in and he was helping me through the sessions – especially before qualifying. I think he could tell I was a little bit nervous.

“The thing I remember that he helped me with was before the race, we sat down with him and also Fred [Vasseur, Ferrari Team Principal], and he was helping me a little bit.

“I hadn’t done any long runs, I hadn’t done more than like two pushes in a row before doing the race. It’s a bit of a different scenario driving in the race versus the qualifying and he gave me a bit of insight about the tyre behaviour and stuff like that – stuff that I hadn’t experienced yet.

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“It’s a little detail but it’s super helpful and it’s something that I didn’t get to experience in my one free practice session. These small little tips and insights were priceless for me in the situation I was in.”

He continued: “I’ve always really been a big fan of Charles. I was team mates with Arthur, his brother, in F3, and naturally we were all supporting Charles in that year. He’s been performing really, really well.

“I knew him a little bit before, we’d met a few times, but that weekend I kind of saw what type of a person he was. I gained a lot of respect for him, because there was no obligation to do something like this.

“It seemed like a little word here and there for him but for me it meant a lot and I really appreciated it.”

Bearman, who has since signed to race for Haas from 2025, also shared some words of praise for Sainz, with the Spaniard on hand following his operation to filter information that Ferrari fed to Bearman when he was behind the wheel.

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“I have to say that it wasn’t the circumstances that I wanted to make my F1 debut in,” added the youngster. “I know Carlos would have preferred to be on track himself, but when an opportunity like this comes you have to be ready and I was.

“Carlos was there on race day, in the garage, standing with the engineers. Actually, I spoke to him after the race and he was saying a few things the engineers wanted to say to me, he was telling them not to, because it would have been a bit of an overload of info.

“But also during the race he was seeing some things that were happening, looking at my driving and giving some pointers, what to change on my driving and what to change on the car set-up itself.

“He was telling them what to tell me, basically, so that was pretty nice. He’s been in that situation and he knows what the driver wants, so I found that really useful.”

Another driver who played their part was seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who will make the move to Maranello next year and join Bearman in the Ferrari family.

READ MORE: Bearman keen to learn from Hamilton as he says seven-time champion will bring ‘winning mentality’ to Ferrari

“He was the first one to see me after the race,” Bearman smiled. “He shook my hand, congratulated me, and of course that was a very special moment. Having watched this guy who’s been racing in F1 since I was born, and to finally share the track with him…

“Actually, I received a video message from him in like 2016. I’d just won the British karting championship and I think through a friend he’d sent me a message and said congratulations, keep pushing, and stuff like this.

“I only like re-received that recently, but it just shows that I was looking up to these guys and now one day, in the future, I will share the track with them – it’s an honour.”