The hidden winner of Bearman’s and Colapinto’s Baku heroics

The performances of Oliver Bearman and Franco Colapinto at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix left Haas and Williams with plenty to mull over.

For Haas, Bearman’s pace out of the box in Baku was impressive – matching team-mate Nico Hulkenberg and securing a point for finishing 10th, becoming the first driver in F1 history to score for two different teams in his first two appearances.

His recovery from a practice crash was far from rookie-like and the smiles in the garage across the weekend showed a synergy that has already been developed through his development with the team ahead of his full-time drive next season.

Oliver Bearman, Haas VF-24, Nico Hulkenberg, Haas VF-24

Photo by: Dom Romney / Motorsport Images

Colapinto’s performance was very much a case of copy and paste from Bearman, though provides Williams with a small headache given there’s no room for him at the team next year.

A crash in practice was overcome with little difficulty, lightning pace from the start of the weekend and well-deserved points whilst performing in the same ballpark as his team-mate, in this case Alex Albon, underlined why team principal James Vowles opted to switch him in for Logan Sargeant.

But the happiest of all will be F2 and F3 CEO Bruno Michel, who pointed to the effectiveness of the single-seater pyramid underneath F1 in preparing drivers for the step up.

“At the end of the day, why is the pyramid there? It is to prepare drivers for Formula 1 and we want to make sure that when they are coming into F1, they are ready,” explained Michel.

“We saw what happened last weekend in Baku, with two F2 drivers stepping into F1 and being immediately on the spot, scoring points in their first race – well, it was not their first race actually – but they are really starting [out]. It means the pyramid is working and that is really important.”

Franco Colapinto, Williams Racing

Photo by: Williams

F2 changed machinery this season to move closer to the cars used in F1 and provide a more representative challenge for the drivers trying to break into the highest echelon.

F3 will make its changes next year, with the new car unveiled at the Monza season finale, and on the benefit of the overhaul, Michel said: “We are trying to make sure that the evolution of the F3 and F2 cars towards F1 is the correct one and that the drivers are getting the experience not only in the car, it is also everything around F1 on the race weekend.

“It is also about the format of the weekend, about the fact they are working in a different environment, that they have less track time. There are a lot of things that we do that are preparing drivers for F1, at the end of the day. Of course, the tyres are also playing an important part with the progression of the drivers as well. So it is not only the aerodynamics of the car, it is also all the systems that the car has.

“The drivers start to work with the DRS, with the environments the FIA is creating with race control, the marshalling system – there are all these things the drivers need to be prepared for, [so that] when they arrive in F1, they are not going to be totally lost.

“That is the most important thing we do when we prepare drivers from F3 to F2 and F2 to F1.”