EXCLUSIVE: Rising British F1 star labelled as ‘biggest talent I’ve seen’

Esteban Ocon has hailed Haas teammate Oliver Bearman as one of the biggest talents he has seen in F1.

20-year-old Bearman earned a full-time drive with Haas for this season after impressing on his points-scoring F1 debut with Ferrari at last year’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and further two cameo appearances with the American outfit.

Bearman has claimed six points so far this season, with a best finish of eighth at the Chinese Grand Prix in April. He is now preparing to contest his first home race as an F1 driver at this weekend’s British Grand Prix.

Speaking exclusively to Crash.net at Silverstone, Ocon was full of praise for his rookie teammate, who he says has attributes he’s “never seen before”.

“It’s great to have Ollie onboard in this team, he’s really a breath of fresh air,” Ocon said. “He’s always very positive, very smiley, very professional, very detailed. He knows a lot about technical bits of the car, which I was very, very impressed with.

“Outside of the car he’s just a fun character - a young bear and the fastest bear on the planet! It’s quite funny, his nickname.

“It’s great to work with him and he’s very fast. He’s probably the biggest talent I’ve seen in a while. His raw pace and talent and adapting to conditions, it’s something I’ve never seen before. He’s really, really impressive.”

Bearman ‘excited’ for first British GP

Bearman attended his first grand prix as a schoolboy fan at Silverstone in 2015, when he was cheering for Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel.

"I think excited is an understatement,” Bearman said on Thursday. “It was 12 months ago I announced that I would race in F1 this year, and that was very special.

“So, returning as a full-time driver is an incredible feeling and really excited to race here for the first time as an F1 driver.

“I'm just starting, so I don't know how it feels to race at home yet, but my first time at Silverstone was in 2015 for the Grand Prix, so exactly ten years ago.

“I was one of the people in the crowd, cheering, and now to be one of the people on track and making people so happy and united is a really incredible feeling.

“I'm really proud to be racing in the UK, flying the flag, and hopefully we can all have a great weekend.”