Ferrari's senior performance engineer and driver coach, Jock Clear, has shed light on why Formula 1’s current generation of rookies are making such a strong impact in the sport.
Clear, who also leads the Ferrari Driver Academy, pointed to advances in simulator technology and the alignment of junior formulae with F1 as key reasons why talents like Ollie Bearman and Franco Colapinto are able to get up to speed so quickly.
Bearman, just 18, stepped in for Carlos Sainz at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix earlier this season and immediately qualified P11 and finished P7.
As for Colapinto, the 21-year-old Argentine replaced Logan Sargeant at Williams at last month’s Italian Grand Prix and went on to secure his first points in Baku.
Clear believes that today's young talents have a clearer pathway to F1 than ever before.
“I think it is a testament to all of the academies,” commented the British engineer, speaking on a recent F1 Nation podcast.
“I think it’s probably a testament to the way the lower formulae have aligned themselves with F1 generally. We have very good relationships with the junior formula teams.
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“You think, how on earth is it possible that Bearman can get in a car that he virtually hasn’t driven, qualify P11 and race to P7 in his very first event, having never tested that car? I think the simulators now are very good and that is a natural progression of the technology.
“As soon as you say to an F1 team, ‘You can no longer go testing, you no longer have the opportunity to drive around Fiorano all day, every day’, then F1 teams will be quite aggressively developing some other way to do exactly the same job.
“How do we make sure we’re just as ready to perform? We find ways – and the simulator is the obvious way. The fidelity of simulators is at such a good level now that what we see with Colapinto and with Ollie is that, actually, when they get here, it’s not all alien to them.
“They know what to do with the tyres. They know what to expect. The circuits that they’ve never driven at, they have driven at. The virtual circuit that they drive on in the simulator is so good that actually they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, this is just like it’. It’s all there.”
Clear emphasized that Bearman’s performance with Ferrari in Jeddah not only validated the young driver's outstanding ability but it also proved the overall talent level in the FIA Formula 2 Championship.
“The great thing about the Ollie experience in Saudi is it effectively vindicated and valued the whole F2 grid,” added clear.
“There’s no one in the F2 grid now who an F1 team is going to look at and say, ‘Yeah, it’s probably not worth looking at him’.
“I would say in our sport we’ve had a history of believing that, if you win something, then it’s only fair that you get an opportunity.
Mercedes junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli with Ferrari engineer Jock Clear.
“If you win F2, it’s only fair that you get an opportunity to move to F1. I think the mindset needs to change to the whole of F2 needs looking at.
“You’re never going to win the F2 championship and not be a good driver, but there will be people out there who haven’t won the F2 championship, and you don’t want them to be missing out just because it didn’t go their way on a couple of occasions.”
With Colapinto continuing at Williams this season and Bearman set to make his full-time debut at Haas next year, not to mention the presence on the grid in 2025 of Mercedes sensation Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the future of Formula 1 looks bright with a promising crop of young talent ready to take on the challenge.
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