Red Bull director Helmut Marko has told Ferrari where Oliver Bearman should be racing come the 2025 season.
Bearman made his F1 debut at the last race in Saudi Arabia when Carlos Sainz had to withdraw with appendicitis.
And speaking to Austrian outlet oe24, Marko has advised the Scuderia on the best move they can make for the Briton next year.
Bearman is part of the Ferrari driver academy and will hope to race for the Prancing Horse one day.
The 18-year-old won the driver of the day award in Jeddah after progressing from 11th on the grid to seventh.
Will Oliver Bearman race in Australia?
The expectation is that Sainz will be back in the cockpit for this weekend’s race.
Bearman has travelled to the circuit for the third round of the Formula 2 championship and will be on standby.
Ferrari are willing to late until the last possible moment to make a decision if that proves to be necessary.
But the situation currently looks ‘promising’ for Sainz, who himself has been in Melbourne for a couple of days.
As such, Bearman’s focus will be recovering lost ground in F2 after he fell to the bottom of the standings.
He qualified on pole for the feature race in Saudi Arabia before Ferrari called him up.
He’ll feature in at least six more F1 weekends this season, with Haas set to hand him multiple FP1 outings.
Helmut Marko urges Ferrari to send Bearman to Haas
Marko pointed out that the door to Ferrari is shut for 2025, with Lewis Hamilton on his way from Mercedes and Charles Leclerc committed too.
With that in mind, he thinks they should ‘place’ Bearman at Haas, a move that would relieve some of the ‘pressure’ on his shoulders.
“They bought Hamilton at a high price and signed a long-term contract with Leclerc.
“I would place the boy in a smaller team like Haas next year.
“A year of learning never hurt anyone, it also takes pressure off.”
Haas not the only team eyeing Bearman
ESPN’s Laurence Edmondson has said he would be ‘very surprised’ if Bearman didn’t get a seat at Haas.
He’s expected to be a ‘key contender’ for the drive, with Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen both out of contract.
Haas actually had the chance to sign the teenager for the 2024 season but wanted to get on top of the issues with their car first.
Having finished bottom of the 2023 standings, they decided it wasn’t wise to take on a rookie.
They have made a more promising start to the new campaign, with Hulkenberg scoring their first point in Saudi Arabia.
However, there are a number of other teams who may present rival offers to Bearman and Ferrari.
Alpine, Williams and Sauber (who will rebrand as Audi in 2026) have all emerged as possible destinations.
The post ‘I would place the boy’: Helmut Marko tells Ferrari where Oliver Bearman should drive next year appeared first on F1 Oversteer.