Rookie drivers Franco Colapinto and Ollie Bearman impressed during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend, delivering standout performances on the tricky street circuit in Baku.
Both Bearman, subbing in for the benched Kevin Magnussen at Haas in Baku and Colapinto, replacing the axed Logan Sargeant at Williams, are only two full races into their fledgling Formula 1 careers. Although they got caught out and suffered crashes while finding the limits during free practice, they both went on to recover in time for qualifying, where they outperformed their respective teammates. Colapinto successfully reached Q3 to secure P9; Bearman, meanwhile, narrowly missed out on the final segment, qualifying P11.
Colapinto and Bearman would go on to score points in the race, earning high praise from seasoned drivers. Williams in particular had cause for celebration as they achieved a double points finish with Alex Albon finishing seventh and Colapinto eighth, putting a total of ten precious points on the board.
Remarkably, Bearman actually wrote himself into the history books this weekend, becoming the first driver to score points for two different teams in his first two F1 races.
Speaking to the media after Sunday’s race, Bearman expressed how much he enjoyed the chance to experience a full race weekend as a stand-in F1 driver, following his impromptu substitution for Ferrari in Saudi Arabia earlier this season.
“It’s definitely cool, it was a tough race,” Bearman said of his Baku outing.
“(…) It’s so nice to get a full weekend, from FP1 to the race. I learnt a lot and it’s been really useful. I can fully focus on F1 and also experience the track evolution through a weekend, which is huge on a track like this.”
Analysing his race performance, Bearman said: “I wasn’t running in the points until the end because of the crash in front. The car was really fast and honestly I was really fast as well, I just lost a lot of time in the first stint.
“I was just not driving very fast, I was just saving the tyres too much and that was not really necessary. I took too much of the experience from FP2 into the race but honestly the track is so different in the race that you can almost forget the long runs in FP2 and start again. I put it down to experience.”
A dramatic collision between Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez on the penultimate lap allowed the drivers further down to capitalise. Bearman executed a move on Hulkenberg to take the final point-scoring position.
“Yeah, it went green again and I managed to get [Hulkenberg] with Lewis, it was an overtake,” he said. “Of course I’m sorry to him, who had a problem to lose the position also to Franco, but yeah, happy to take a point.”
Bearman also touched on his battle with Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton, saying he trusted that the veteran driver wouldn’t “put him in the wall” during the encounter.
“We were going like that, like a yo-yo, quite a lot. I was really pushing hard for some laps to overtake Franco and my tyres were really hot. It was exactly at that point that [Hamilton] pounced on me and could overtake me quite easily.
“After that I needed a few laps, then I caught him back up and I was almost catching the DRS again. It’s annoying when I let him overtake, but [racing] a guy like that you can’t do little mistakes when he’s behind.
“You know when you go around the outside that he’s going to leave you space, which is a nice feeling. Like in Turn 1, I knew he wasn’t going to put me in the wall, which is a bit less sure with some other drivers. That’s a nice feeling and it’s always very clean but hard when I was racing him.”
Earlier in the race, Bearman had been instructed to let his teammate pass. He explained: “Yeah, I wanted one more lap to speed up, but they didn’t want that, but that’s fine.
“I wasn’t fast enough at that point in the race and I was getting in the way of the strategy. At that point Nico was by far the faster car, so it’s really my fault that I wasn’t pushing hard enough. That really compromised my race, the fact that I was too slow in the first stint, because I got myself in some traffic for the second one.”
Having started ninth, Colapinto did well to keep his cool and avoid trouble early on, while his late-race overtake on Hulkenberg showed he knows how to capitalise on opportunities when they present themselves.
“Yeah, it was very satisfying,” Colapinto said.
“I found very tough the half part of the race. We were really struggling with the tyres. I managed very well the mediums in the first stint, but it was very hot and the mediums were suffering a lot. But we did a great job on that first stint.
“(…) I think we didn’t manage very well the tyres. But we managed them too much, we managed too much the fronts. And I didn’t really know that that was happening and why my front tyre was opening and graining like that.
“It was something I found out very late in the race. And I think, knowing that, I could have maybe attacked Fernando [Alonso] a bit more. But it’s all part of the process and part of the learning.”
After several difficult rounds, Williams seem to be making a late-season comeback, having risen to eighth in the Constructors’ standings with their double points finish in Azerbaijan. Colapinto expressed satisfaction with contributing to the team’s success.
“I am happy for the result,” he said. “It’s a great result for the team. It’s something unexpected and amazing for Williams. They really deserve it. Very happy for what we achieved together and we need to keep working on it.
Unlike Bearman, who is confirmed to be joining Haas on a permanent basis in 2025, Colapinto’s only been brought in by Williams for the final few rounds of the season. However, he hopes his performances will be impressive enough to secure a spot on the grid for next year, particularly as Sauber is still trying to find a suitable candidate to fill their remaining seat.
“They showed so much confidence and trust in putting me in a seat. It was a very difficult bet and a bet that many people didn’t understand. But I hope to be showing what I’m capable of.
“I deserve a seat in Formula 1. The opportunity that James [Vowles] gave me is helping me to show that. I am just doing a lot of work to try to learn quick. I have very little mileage in Formula 1 cars. But I think with the little mileage I’ve got to win a point in my second race is something really positive.”
