There are still several teams on the grid who have yet to confirm a driver for the 2025 Formula 1 season but that could change soon.
While the action on the track at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix wasn’t thrilling, drivers were making moves in the paddock to secure their F1 futures.
Speaking on The Race Podcast, journalist Edd Straw discussed one driver who appears to be a shoo-in to earn a seat on the grid next year.
After a ‘scandalous’ winter of stability in Formula 1, 2025 is likely to see several rookies enter the fray.
Mercedes are preparing Andrea Kimi Antonelli for an F1 debut while Liam Lawson has a clause in his Red Bull contract that appears to guarantee him a seat next year.
Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman is being lined up by Haas and now appears to be almost certain to be one of their two drivers in 2025.
He took part in his first FP1 session of the season at Imola and impressed fans with his performance.
The 19-year-old already has more points than Kevin Magnussen this season but may not be lining up alongside the Dane next year despite Nico Hulkenberg’s imminent departure.
READ MORE: Who is Ferrari reserve driver Oliver Bearman? Everything you need to know
Oliver Bearman ‘almost certainly’ racing for Haas in 2025
Earning a seat in Formula 1 is becoming more and more difficult and it’s now almost essential to be part of a team’s junior program to make that step up.
That still doesn’t guarantee anything though and the previous two F2 champions – Felipe Drugovich and Theo Pourchaire – have been denied that opportunity by Aston Martin and Sauber respectively.
Bearman benefitted from an unlikely cameo in Saudi Arabia where he stepped in for Carlos Sainz at the last minute and capitalised immediately.
Opportunities like that are incredibly rare, however, it speaks volumes that the last three drivers offered that chance have either been offered a full-time seat or been promised that chance.
Nyck de Vries’s drive for Williams at Monza earned him a contract with AlphaTauri and Lawson’s five-race spell in 2023 was good enough to convince Red Bull that he deserves a seat next year.
Bearman looks set to be the next driver to follow in their footsteps and is almost guaranteed to be driving for Haas in 2025.
That’s despite team owner Gene Haas’s reluctance to offer another rookie their chance in F1 after Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin’s struggles.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Haas F1 Team from team principal to Ferrari relationship
Oliver Bearman preparing for full-time Formula 1 seat
Talking about the teenager’s touted move to Haas, Straw said: “It’s as close as it can be to being a foregone conclusion without being 100% confirmed.
“It’s almost certainly going to happen, they committed long before he raced that Ferrari [in Saudi Arabia] to giving him six FP1s, that’s four more than they had to.
“He really impressed them last year, it’s basically due diligence and preparation for [Oliver] Bearman now with Haas.
“He will almost certainly be there next year. You never know in the driver market as we’ve learnt this year with our talk about what could happen, but he’s going to be at Haas next year.
“I don’t think his F2 performances will have a huge impact on that.”
Saudi Arabia cameo the high point for Oliver Bearman’s 2024 season
Bearman will be keen for his 2025 Haas race seat to be confirmed sooner rather than later if it’s almost over the line.
He’s already scored six points this season in Formula 1 thanks to his 7-place finish in Jeddah for Ferrari.
The 19-year-old earned plenty of praise for that performance but his Formula 2 season hasn’t gone to plan.
After four rounds, Bearman sits 20 in the Drivers’ Championship, although it has to be considered that he didn’t race in Saudi Arabia because of his step up onto the F1 grid which denied him a pole position start.
He races for PREMA which is one of the strongest teams at that level, but the Italian outfit have struggled with new regulations this year.
The Bahrain weekend was a write-off with him and Kimi Antonelli struggling throughout.
He scored his first points in the Feature Race in Australia but only qualified 16 and Antonelli outperformed him across the weekend.
Bearman should have secured his first big haul of points at Imola and was in contention to win the race before stalling in the pit lane twice in the Feature Race to tumble down the order.
Haas will want Bearman to iron out those issues before he makes the step up to F1 in 2025 but the American almost certainly have one of the brightest talents in Formula 2 joining them next year.
The post ‘Almost certainly’: 6-point driver ‘as close as’ he can be to securing seat on the 2025 F1 grid – journalist appeared first on F1 Oversteer.