Oliver
Dad and I collected one-eighth-scale toy cars when I was a child — every make, from Aston Martin to McLaren. I pushed them around on the floor with my mum, Terri, and made engine noises. Dad was an amateur racing driver himself, competing in British club sports car championships, so it was probably inevitable that petrol would run through my veins too.
“Lively” would be a fair description of me as a child. My brother, Thomas, is four years younger than me and a brilliant kart racer himself. As a toddler I tried to make him do everything I did, even though he could barely walk. My sister, Amalie, is 12 and more into horsepower as a showjumper.
Motoring magazines were always scattered around our house in Chelmsford. I also liked to go online and use the car manufacturers’ configurator tools, pretending I could buy my own Ferrari or Porsche. I spent hours choosing the colour, engine and interior trim. By the age of four I could tell Dad every make and model on the road. It sounds nerdy but I loved cars.
I think I was five when Mum first took me to a go-kart track. Dad was racing elsewhere that weekend and I had to start on the little oval circuit for beginners. I remember I was going a bit too fast, so the instructor kept yelling at me to slow down.
I also remember watching Dad race. I loved the smell of engines and oil — those GT racing cars smell different from Formula 1 cars. I did watch him have a big crash at Brands Hatch once. It was a scary moment but he walked away fine and later told me that it definitely wasn’t his fault!
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My dad is a great role model and has supported my racing from the start. We don’t come from a wealthy background like some F1 drivers — he had to work hard to build his insurance company from nothing. I started karting competitively in 2013, although we didn’t always have the funds to buy the best go-karts or go testing as much as other drivers. But I worked my way up through the junior karting ranks, then Formula 4 and 3 single-seaters, before my first drive in Formula 2 last year.
Mum is very pro education, which I fully understand, so she wasn’t happy when I left King Edward VI Grammar School in Chelmsford at 16 to join the Ferrari Driver Academy in Modena. We sat down when I finished my GCSEs and decided I should concentrate on my racing, but it was still hard leaving home. I missed my family and friends at first. Mum and Dad come and see me race as often as possible, but they also have my brother and sister to think about.
In March I flew to Jeddah to compete in an F2 race, on the same weekend as the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. I knew Ferrari’s F1 driver Carlos Sainz was feeling unwell, but it was still a shock when he was rushed to hospital with appendicitis. I was only 18 and to get the call-up for my first F1 drive was mind-blowing.
Suddenly I was competing against all my heroes — Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen. I just thought, go out and do your best, so when I crossed the line in seventh place, it was fantastic. I couldn’t believe what had just happened.
Then I felt a bit dejected because I knew it would be a while before I got the same chance again. By the time this article comes out I hope to have made my Silverstone debut, driving in the first practice for the Haas team ahead of [today’s] main race. It’d be a dream come true.
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• British prodigy Oliver Bearman realises F1 dream after signing with Haas
Dad has been with me from the beginning. It’s his drive and focus, with Mum’s support and love, that has got me this far.
David
Terri and I were living in a terraced house at Heath Park, near Romford, when Ollie was born. It was our first home — a two-up, two-down that was in need of total renovation. I was 26, working flat out to set up my insurance business and we could barely afford the mortgage.
Terri is Catholic and her parents were horrified when she became pregnant before we were married. She was about six days overdue with Ollie — for once, he refused to make a quick start.
Ollie was always a live wire, full of energy and passionate about cars. That probably came from me because racing was my hobby. When he started kart racing, it was obvious he loved it. He started winning trophies and I soon realised that I enjoyed watching him more than competing myself.
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By the time Ollie was eight or nine, it probably cost about £10,000 a season for him to race. Karting is a contact sport and things get broken. It can be very rough with 36 young lads on a track together, but we look at motorsport like running a business. You have to stand up for yourself and be firm but fair with people.
When Ollie was ten I bought a motorhome. It almost crippled me financially but it meant the whole family could go away to race events at the weekend. There were no holidays that year but we could see that he was already better than the older boys. He certainly wasn’t bullied on the racetrack. I saw raw skill.
To get to where he is you have to be 100 per cent dedicated, driving up to Cumbria one weekend, Lincolnshire the next and battling against people with more funding. Even in the middle of winter he never complained about getting up at 5am to go racing.
Ollie first competed in European karting when he was 13 and the following year won the world and European titles. By then my insurance business was doing well because we had to cover a budget of about £70,000 a year. All our spare funds went on racing.
Terri wasn’t pleased when Ollie left school to join the Ferrari academy but it was the chance of a lifetime. He just deals with things — I’m sure there were lonely moments, but we’d see him as often as possible.
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I was with Ollie when he heard he would race in Saudi. Bearing in mind the longest race he had done before that was 45 minutes in Formula 2, the step up to F1 was huge. Somehow he drove for two hours, didn’t put a wheel wrong and beat Lewis and Lando Norris.
I was choked up when I saw him afterwards — incredibly proud. Ollie took it all in his stride. He’s a humble kid from a hard-working background and that won’t ever change. The F1 drivers are chauffeured from a luxury hotel but F2 teams stay at a budget Ibis and walk in with the fans unrecognised. By the time we left after Ollie’s grand prix drive, the crowd definitely knew who he was.
Strange habits
Ollie on David
We travel a lot together but he speed-walks everywhere. Even on family holidays you can’t slow him down
David on Ollie
He carries a sixpence in his wallet from his late great- grandmother Eileen
