Bearman's Guest Column: Finally a chance to prove my pace

30 August 2022

It was a stellar weekend for PREMA Racing’s Oliver Bearman, as the Briton capitalised on his title rival’s misfortunes to close the gap in the Drivers’ Championship and put himself in serious contention for the crown.

After his race victory and podium finish at Spa-Francorchamps, we handed over to Bearman for Guest Column duties this weekend, getting his thoughts on a huge weekend for him, the momentum he’s building and what to expect at Zandvoort next time out.

ONE GOOD POINT – ON THE BOARD

“Getting my first win was a good point. Although it was only in the Sprint Race it was nice to finally stand on the top step. It did feel like a long time coming, I won my first race on track but I took the penalty earlier, but it’s nice to finally come and it’s a bit of a relief because you can’t really be fully part of a Championship without that first win, so that was a good point this weekend.”

ONE BAD POINT – QUALIFYING

“Qualifying was quite tough. I was P1 after the first run in the wet which was good, but we gambled on the slicks, which in the end was the right call. The track was getting drier every lap so I knew the fastest lap would be on the final lap. Unfortunately I made an error at Les Combes, which was still wet at the time. I lost quite a lot of time there so I think I lost the opportunity to be further up in the Feature Race, so I’m going to work on that and be better at Zandvoort.”

WHAT I LEARNED – TIME TO SHINE

“I wouldn’t say I learned something new, just that I’ve built on everything so far I’ve done so far this season. The last few races we’ve had were wet, which wasn’t great for me because I thought I was always improving in dry races and improving my tyre management. Now to finally get two dry races was really nice, I could show what I’d learned and prove that I have good race pace.”

FANS MAY HAVE MISSED – PODIUM ANTICS

“The first one was, after the race win, I went to shake my engineer’s hand but I hit him in the face by accident. I’m not sure if you saw it but I felt bad for that. On the podium I poured champagne down his back, which made for quite a funny picture. One for the photo album I think.”

UP NEXT – ZANDVOORT

“I think it’s quite similar to Hungary that Qualifying will be super important. Overtaking won’t be easy so full focus on that. I’ve been there before, I raced there last year in F4, I really enjoyed the track, it’s super fun and super old-fashioned. Not much run off either so it’s quite rewarding to put everything together and do a good lap. I’m looking forward to it, I enjoy the track so it should be nice.”