‘It’s not alien to them’ – Ferrari driver coach Jock Clear on why rookies are thriving in F1

Veteran engineer Jock Clear has given his take on why this year’s super-sub performers have been able to get up to speed so quickly, with Ferrari-backed Ollie Bearman and Williams junior Franco Colapinto impressing many in the paddock.

Bearman was the first example at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix back in March, when Ferrari needed a replacement for the unwell Carlos Sainz and called on their then 18-year-old academy driver to fill the spot from final practice onwards.

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It was a superb display from the youngster, who just missed out on a place in the final stage of qualifying and went on to score points – an achievement he replicated during another stand-in performance for his 2025 employer Haas in Azerbaijan.

Meanwhile, 21-year-old Colapinto was drafted in as a mid-season replacement for Logan Sargeant at Williams, immediately performing well alongside experienced team mate Alex Albon and bagging his first points on the streets of Baku.

Bearman and Colapinto have both won races in feeder series F2 this year and Clear – who heads up the Ferrari Driver Academy, as well as coaching Charles Leclerc – reckons up-and-coming talents have a clearer pathway to F1 than ever before.

“I think it is a testament to all of the academies,” said Clear in an appearance on the F1 Nation podcast (listen in the player below). “I think it’s probably a testament to the way the lower formulae have aligned themselves with F1 generally. We have very good relationships with the junior formula teams.

“You think, how on earth is it possible that Bearman can get in a car that he virtually hasn’t driven, qualify P11 and race to P7 in his very first event, having never tested that car? I think the simulators now are very good and that is a natural progression of the technology.

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“As soon as you say to an F1 team, ‘You can no longer go testing, you no longer have the opportunity to drive around Fiorano all day, every day’, then F1 teams will be quite aggressively developing some other way to do exactly the same job.

“How do we make sure we’re just as ready to perform? We find ways – and the simulator is the obvious way. The fidelity of simulators is at such a good level now that what we see with Colapinto and with Ollie is that, actually, when they get here, it’s not all alien to them.

“They know what to do with the tyres. They know what to expect. The circuits that they’ve never driven at, they have driven at. The virtual circuit that they drive on in the simulator is so good that actually they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, this is just like it’. It’s all there.”

Bearman sits 15th in the F2 standings ahead of the final two rounds, having missed the Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan races due to his F1 stand-in appearances, and Clear argued that his Ferrari showing in particular had a significant knock-on effect.

“The great thing about the Ollie experience in Saudi is it effectively vindicated and valued the whole F2 grid,” added clear. “There’s no one in the F2 grid now who an F1 team is going to look at and say, ‘Yeah, it’s probably not worth looking at him’.

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“I would say in our sport we’ve had a history of believing that, if you win something, then it’s only fair that you get an opportunity. If you win F2, it’s only fair that you get an opportunity to move to F1. I think the mindset needs to change to the whole of F2 needs looking at.

“You’re never going to win the F2 championship and not be a good driver, but there will be people out there who haven’t won the F2 championship, and you don’t want them to be missing out just because it didn’t go their way on a couple of occasions.”

Colapinto will continue with Williams for the remainder of the season, prior to Carlos Sainz joining from Ferrari, while Bearman is preparing to make his full-time debut alongside Esteban Ocon at Haas next year.