Having dealt perfectly with four safety car restarts and almost race-long pressure from behind, Ollie Bearman’s Formula 2 feature race performance at Monza was hard to fault. Following his fourth victory this season, Bearman spoke to Feeder Series and select media to gather his thoughts.

By George Brabner

Once Bearman snatched the lead from polesitter Pourchaire on lap one, he didn’t have to fight another car on the same strategy again. 

Competing on his team’s home soil and sporting the emblem of Italy’s adored Scuderia Ferrari on his car, Bearman executed a masterful F2 feature race in Monza to take an emotional victory.

“It felt really amazing. One of my best feelings, one of my best wins to do it in front of the home crowd,” he said post-race. “It’s also kind of my home race as well because I live out here, and to see the support from the fans, even for an F2 race, was really amazing.”

Despite constant pressure from either Pourchaire or the leader of the alternate strategy Ayumu Iwasa, Bearman dealt maturely with four safety car restarts on his way to victory – including one with just five laps left in the race. 

“Every time, I just wanted to make sure that the others got the dirty air through Parabolica, through the final corner, and I could have the clean air, and it seemed to work every time… I kept doing the same thing,” he explained.

“The problem is during the safety car, you lose a lot of temperature [in your tyres]. And especially on the final restart, the safety car is quite slow and the tyres are at its worst state. It’s quite tough to fire up the front tyres. I was a bit scared of Ayumu on the supersoft a couple of places back.”

What the standings don’t tell you

Bearman’s Prema Racing stablemate Frederik Vesti spun out of the feature race after contact with Roman Stanek on lap one. The point-less result has hampered the Danish driver’s hopes of snatching the F2 title from Pourchaire’s grasp in Abu Dhabi, yet he still sits 36 points ahead of his teenage teammate.

However, having been in with a plausible chance of victory in three of the last four races, Bearman said there is “nothing” he needs to change right now to challenge for a Formula 2 title in the future.

“In general, I can only see maybe one or two races where we weren’t fighting for the podium in a feature race. We’ve always been up there, but not quite finished up there,” he told Feeder Series.

“I feel like it’s coming better in terms of my performance. I feel like Zandvoort and Monza have been two of my better weekends and I’m happy that the results have shown it in Monza.” 

“It’s been a progression throughout the season. I’ve learnt a lot as a driver. I’m so much better than I was back in Bahrain or Jeddah, and it’s just always a continued effort and no doubt I can fight for the championship [in 2024].”

Similarities between Bearman’s late-season surge in FIA F3 last season and his recent run of form in F2 can be drawn, but he is in a very different position in the championship standings compared to one year ago. 

Bearman says the biggest difference between his two campaigns is how quickly he was able to find a consistent rhythm.

“I think I found consistency earlier last year in F3. Already kind of at the halfway point of the season, I was a regular podium finisher. Whereas this year, it’s been a little bit harder for me to find the consistency,” Bearman said.

“The pace has never been in doubt… I’ve won a lot of races, but I haven’t actually had a lot of seconds or thirds, which isn’t really a good thing. To build a good championship challenge, you need to be consistent and that’s something that I feel like I’ve found, but it’s come a bit late.”

Heading into an 83-day hiatus in the F2 season, Bearman trails fellow rookie Victor Martins who, like Vesti, retired from the feature race. However, the Briton’s performance Sunday morning at Monza punched well above his experience level, having out-classed championship leader Pourchaire and gone mistake-free despite frequent interruptions.

Header photo credit: Prema Racing