Oliver Bearman impressed his Haas team in Azerbaijan on Friday on what he called a “dry run” ahead of his fulltime Formula 1 graduation next season.
The teenager has stepped into the team as a one-off replacement for Kevin Magnussen, who has been banned for a race after accumulating 12 penalty points.
Baku is his first full F1 race weekend after he was called into action for Ferrari on Saturday in Jeddah earlier this year.
Bearman logged 10th place in FP2, just 0.072s shy of team mate Nico Hulkenberg.
“I was really happy with how we finished,” he said. “The main thing was that I completed all the laps we could. A lot of red flags, a lot of interruptions.
“But I was pretty happy with how things went. I was building up step-by-step, and at the end, I found good confidence with the car. So, yeah, good way to go to sleep and start fresh tomorrow.
“This whole weekend is a dry run for next year. I’m learning so much. Today was my first FP2 session!
“I’m in a much better place than I was few months ago going into FP3, which is great. And the track is making a big step every time I run. And these are things that I wouldn’t know. It’s my first time doing the full weekend, and I’m learning a lot.”
After the session his engineer praised him on the radio for an “excellent” long run performance, and Bearman was pleased to receive such positive feedback.
“Yeah, it was an encouraging day overall,” he said. “I started with a few question marks. This is a really tough track, and my second F1 race is going to be on another street track.
“So it’s not easy, but I was really happy with how the day went. I made a good step from FP1 to FP2 and I felt comfortable with the car. So what more can you ask for?”
Bearman added: “I’m focusing really on myself, and the encouraging part is that I feel confident in the car, I’m comfortable, which was a bit less the case in FP1, but with the track conditions like that, it’s really tough.
“FP2 I was feeling comfortable, and I felt like I could do what I wanted with the car, and I was controlling it. FP1 was a bit more messy, just for the track state.”
