Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari substitute is about – however one factor has to alter | F1 | Sport

Lewis Hamilton’s F1 substitute is already on the grid, however one factor has to alter earlier than filling the footwear of the seven-time champion. Hamilton might be embarking on his ultimate F1 season, with the efficiency of Ferrari’s newest SF-26 essential as to if Hamilton sticks round for one more 12 months. He secured P4 within the season-opening Australian Grand Prix as he chases a primary podium for Ferrari.

If he does keep, Hamilton might name it quits on the finish of 2027 or 2028, with one driver in prime place to steal probably the most coveted slots on the grid. British star Oliver Bearman breezed into F1 after impressing within the decrease formulation earlier than starring in a one-off race look for Ferrari at Saudi Arabia in 2024.

This shortly assured a seat at Haas in 2025, however then issues began going awry. At his very first race on the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, Bearman crashed in both free practice sessions, placing him on the again foot.

Ferrari is more likely to forgive a junior driver exploring the restrict on his F1 debut, however what got here subsequent was extra regarding and will backfire in 2026. The British driver was a daily speaking level within the FIA race stewards’ room, selecting up a whopping 10 penalty factors for infractions. Over one season, that’s an astronomical whole.

His greatest drawback was round purple flags, falling foul of session stoppage guidelines on multiple event. At Monaco, Bearman was penalised for overtaking below purple flags throughout free apply, leading to a 10-place grid penalty and factors on his licence.

Just just a few races later, Bearman offended the race stewards as soon as once more as he didn’t gradual sufficiently for red flags in FP3 at Silverstone, even dropping management of his automotive and crashing into the obstacles. This was the worst of the bunch, with Bearman handed a 10-place grid penalty and 4 penalty factors on his tremendous licence in a single go.

Bearman is aware of he had a scrappy begin to the 12 months, beforehand admitting that the primary half of his rookie season was suffering from “very expensive errors”. His different 4 factors got here at Italy, Brazil and Abu Dhabi and go away Bearman teetering on the edge of an F1 race ban.

FIA penalty points remain on a driver’s Super Licence for 12 months, meaning Bearman has to walk the tightrope until the end of May when his Monaco points are revoked. Drivers have been elevated into top teams based on the performances of one single race, think Nyck de Vries at Monza in 2022, Sergio Perez after Sakhir 2020.

What if Bearman is banned and Haas manages to deliver a car capable of challenging for points or a podium in the first six races? Bearman has lost one shot to impress Ferrari bosses and stake a claim to Hamilton’s seat.

In the wider picture, if Bearman doesn’t cut out the mistakes in 2026, will Ferrari want to come knocking at all? Perhaps not. Having not won a title in almost 20 years, the Italian marque is desperate for success and wants a finished product capable of winning.

Charles Leclerc was incident-prone at Sauber and brought that trait to Ferrari in his half-hearted title tilt in 2022. The Monegasque looks like the finished product now, but will Scuderia bosses want to wait for Bearman to blossom as they did with Leclerc?

The 20-year-old is next in Ferrari’s conveyor belt of talent, but must cut out the mistakes if he wants to stake his claim to one of the biggest seats in world motorsport.