Ollie Bearman: High hopes with Haas + Ferrari

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1:30I can hire a top-rated pro that knows everything about interior paint, easily compare prices, and read reviews. Thumbtack knows homes. Download the app today. As an F1 fan and a Lewis fan as well, it's pretty cool to see him performing at the level he is. Let's go! For the Ferrari! For the Ferrari! Of course, in terms of my future, that's not ideal. For me, staying at Haas for the foreseeable is not a bad thing. I really want to get back to those highs which we tasted in Mexico and other events. I feel like they're on a good trajectory, this team, and I'm really happy to be on the journey with it.

2:19Would you ever consider leaving the Ferrari family? My goal remains to be a Ferrari driver one day. Of course, I don't want to be sitting around for three, four, five years, because then you can be wasting your best years. My ultimate goal is maybe a bit selfish, and that's because I want to be fighting for World Championships. So if I can have that opportunity wherever, I will take it. Welcome, everybody, to F1 Beyond the Grid. And my guest this week is Oli Behrman. Oli, great to see you. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. Thanks for having me and excited for a summer break. Well, let's talk about the summer break.

3:00How do you approach the summer shutdown? What does it mean to you? Is it a chance to delve into data that you don't normally have time for? Or is it shut down, don't think about Formula One for a couple of weeks? I think the latter, to be honest. you know you have a bit of time at the start of the first week which for us is already the summer break but for the engineers is is not yet the summer break you know they can still work in the factory and look through things and of course they'll be very hard at work on my side you know there's there's always a bit of of post event kind of work that we do with the team just an hour or two on on team's calls and that's just nice to kind of be able to move on for the summer break because if you if you do the the budapest debrief on on the race week for zamvort after you know three weeks of summer break maybe you can't even get the race out of your mind you know so it's nice to close the chapter of budapest and then move on to to the real summer and uh that will be about you know relaxing recharging the batteries and uh and enjoying some time with friends and family so what does an ideal rest day look like for ollie behrman well of course i live in a beautiful part of of the world in monaco close to the sea will you train during the break i will train but not in the first week and a half i would say um so i'm gonna spend first of all a week at home and in that week i i won't train maybe i'll play some paddle or something but i won't do any specific training and then i will do like a week and a half with my family as well and I think in the first half of that vacation, I won't train as well.

4:39And then the final kind of week and a half, I actually, I'll make sure to bring my bike when we go, uh, when we go on holiday. And then I also have a training camp of, you know, three or four days to make sure all of the weight I inevitably put on can come back off for, for the next race. And what does the training camp look like? Is that a lot of cycling? Yeah, it's actually a cycling, um, camp that I'm doing. I'm going to Switzerland with some friends, into the mountains actually where they did the Tour de Suisse or where it finished. Yeah, it's actually, you know, I've really got into cycling recently and with a few friends, we've had a cool idea to go into the mountains.

5:17It's also a bit of altitude training. So I'm really looking forward to it. Do you train with Pogaccia in Monaco? Have I read that? Yeah, sometimes with Tadej we go very much not a training day for him, but certainly a training day for me i spend a lot of time with with today whenever we're both in town which is quite rarely and whenever he's on an easy day we try to go out together also with carlos um we often do a group like that cycling uh last time it was quite funny because we did quite a big ride it was you know a four hour ride and yeah like you know it was a really tough ride for me i was i was pushing to the limit today's average heart rate was was like 99 something like that and and mine was 150 so it puts you in your place when you go his vo2 max is well at least double mine i would say while we're talking about um cycling you've got a side hustle haven't you yeah actually i i um i don't know if you saw i did the career ladder the guy who does the career ladder his name's max and it's quite a popular thing and his job is to guess my job you know and obviously it's quite easy to guess that I'm an F1 driver so his task was to guess what my second job may be and yeah I have a bike shop with a few friends we've opened up a bike shop above Monaco it's a really popular area for cycling it's in La Terbie yeah it's really cool we're really happy with how it's going and And it's more of a passion project for all of us because we really enjoy cycling.

6:52And it's nice to have a bit of a say in how the shop works. It's our own banana bread, cakes. So it's nice. It's enjoyable. I was going to say every good cycling shop has to have a good cafe, right? Exactly. That's really the main thing. We have good coffee. Although I don't really enjoy coffee, I know it's incredibly important. And cyclists are very picky about coffee. That's one thing I've learned. But what I do enjoy is the cakes and we have good cakes. So I'm proud. Just before we move on from cycling, Pogaccia, is it interesting to compare sports with him? The pressures he's under when he's, you know, Tour de France is going on at the minute versus the pressures you're under.

7:32Do you discuss things like that? Yeah, sometimes we talk about handling pressure and, you know, the difficulties that we face in our respective sports. at the end of the day we're you know both at the top level of of our respective sports you know formula one and and world tour cycling and i think in in every professional sport often the pressures and the challenges and and you know the work ethic has to be the same on one side in in cycling it's very much a physical game you know you need to be absolutely you know 100 physically to to go and and perform with the best on our side it's not that you push the body to the full limits you know physically but mentally i would say it's very very you know challenging and and that's where you can separate yourself from the others so yeah it's interesting to to share experiences with other sportsmen and also with tennis players and and other sportsmen i enjoy you know spending time with them because i think you learn a lot from people who's you know as successful as today for example in in their respective sports monaco is great for that isn't it you just walk around the streets and there are you know the greats from pretty much every current sport aren't there yeah exactly i'm i'm really lucky to live there i really enjoy living there and and um thanks to living there i have a great network of friends who understand what it's like to be a pro sportsman because it's really difficult to convey that to someone who who's not in it so you know when you're talking to a to a tennis player or a cyclist they both understand exactly the the challenges that we face now ollie the last time you were on the show a couple of years ago now i was gonna say it's been a while i don't know you'd only actually done two races that amazing race for ferrari obviously in saudi arabia and then you've done one race for has scored points in both but when you look back at that guy two years ago how different is the ollie behrman today Yeah, I've certainly changed a lot in that time.

9:32In what way? Well, how long do we have? No, it's certainly been a big change. I think the first one is my experience in F1, which has increased 100x since I did that race, all those two races in Formula 1. I feel like I have a much clearer idea of what my role is, where I sit within the team and what I need to do every weekend. You know, those two races were really races where I had two shots to prove myself, to prove that I have what it took to be a full-time F1 driver. But, you know, then going in full-time and having that opportunity, then your goals change. You know, you need to have consistent results, have consistent performances.

10:20and that's something I really really learned throughout last year and really improved on throughout last year and if I look at myself 12 months ago but even myself six months ago I feel like I've come a long way as a driver in terms of my you know the consistency of of my performance but also you know how I work with the team how I motivate the team I find it much easier now to put myself out of my comfort zone and and try and lead the team forward because you know when I first came into f1 from f2 where you know you're you're kind of a client of of of the team suddenly now the team looks for you for motivation for inspiration um and and that's something that that doesn't you know change overnight it's not easy to suddenly become the the team leader you know how much easier would that race that you did for ferrari in saudi arabia be now knowing what you know now if you got parachuted in how much of a better job do you think you could do now well in infinitely better.

11:18You know, I was in a really tough situation back then. And I feel like I would just, you know, understand everything much more. Now I came into that weekend, not having driven the tires, not having driven that car around that circuit, not having driven that car full stop, actually, not having driven more than two days in an F1 car. So, you know, the odds were really stacked up against me. If I was to repeat that weekend, you know, I missed out on Q3 back then by nothing pretty much and and i know that i would easily make it through if i was to repeat that and you know i would would hope to say that i would be fighting for the podium if i was to repeat that race um now then of course with this year's car if i was to have that opportunity uh things change but but i feel like you know in terms of a driver i was happy with the performance i did back then given my experience but now i have the tools to do a much better job Cadillac has entered Formula One, deepening the racing pedigree behind every V-Series on the road.

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15:17We're talking at the halfway point in the year. in terms of points you're kind of half the total you were by the end of last year what kind of a job do you think you've done so far this year yeah I think the points tally doesn't really tell the full story because I've been really happy with my performances and actually these last kind of two or three events I feel like I've been performing at my highest level yet in Formula One which which is normal given my experience level is at its highest but you know that's to say that basically the results don't match the effort and the hard work of myself and the team and also the the personal performance from all of those people i was really happy with how we started the season and we maximized points when we could because uh we started with a really strong car and and the others had a few more challenges um particularly on the software side of things which this year as you know has become very complicated and then i feel like we've kind of tailed off a bit we've been outdeveloped by our competition and that's um that's been a bit more painful you know these last few events we we simply haven't been in the fight for the points however you know in in those moments where the best you can achieve is a p15 i think you you need to keep your head up and and still take pride in the little wins and the little wins are you know executing good qualifiers executing good races um driving well and and these things i i think I've been doing pretty well so on that side I've been really happy and like I said the points tally doesn't quite match up to that what did you think was possible after Australia and China where you know you got those two brilliant points finishes what do you think was going to be possible this year back then yeah I think we were p4 at the time in the constructors obviously Red Bull had a had a rocky start but you know I stood up in front of the team a few weeks ago um after a run of tough events and and just as a way to try and motivate them because i felt like everyone's heads were getting down a bit and and i reminded them like guys come on you know we started the season fighting red bull you know we we have what it takes to to do these things and that's crazy to think about you know considering where they are now but but it shows that we we have a really good understanding of the regulations and and the car uh and at that stage i i really felt like we were able to be in the fight in the constructors for p5 or p6 um you know alpine was strong at the beginning but racing balls were also very strong at the beginning and and for me that those looked to be our competition um going forward then you know they bought some upgrades on the car and and just did a step ahead of us they also had you know some issues with race management i remember you know in china i finished fifth in front of pierre in sixth but pierre had an issue with energy so I managed to overtake him and luckily stay in front but but he was quicker at that point you know so they had their pace um we just had better execution but you know I was confident that with you know good upgrades start the year that we could hold on to that I think you know where our season has not come undone because we're at the halfway point but where our first half has come undone is is that in this type of era where you know you're in a very immature time for the cars every development you bring is a big big step you know it can swing the order by a huge amount and there we get a bit exposed with our you know lack of people lack of flexibility because we outsource everything lack of budget at the end which which is which is a a fact and last year that wasn't the case when you're five years into a cycle of rags every upgrade you bring is is marginal and and it's it's not really changing a whole lot and and this year like i said these little updates aren't little anymore they're huge and that's where i i feel like people have just outdeveloped us what does the second half of the year look like is there a lot coming yeah we have an update coming after the summer break and i hope that that can push us in the right direction and and push us forwards you know that the aero department are doing a fantastic job with the limitations they face which you know sometimes feels like we're fighting with one hand tied behind our back you know i i feel like that's the the sentiment that that everybody has in a way um which is a challenge but you know we're not using that as an excuse it's it's just a fact but yeah we have some upgrades coming that the team are are positive about them and yeah we just need to make that step forward and and then then we can be on par with with our competitors and then hopefully continue on that trend and the thing is that every upgrade you make sooner the more you can add more performance on the car if that makes sense so like i say when you're budget limited it's a challenge ollie you're speaking with great confidence now you said a moment ago that you stood up in front of the team recently do you see yourself as the team leader because it's very much the behavior of a driver who sees himself as the team leader well it's it's a role that I want to become, right?

20:19It's a role that's very important in Formula One. And for me, the driver is the most important factor when it comes to motivating the team, putting them in the good window. And that's easy to do when you're finishing in the top five every race. And at the end of last year, when we're always in the points, everyone's over the moon, right? But when you go through a tough run, all of the team members look to someone for inspiration and motivation. And I think that's a job that the driver has to fulfill. And that's something I've realized in the last few weeks where we've been through a really tough run, like I said.

20:56And yeah, it was after Barcelona race that I had the idea. I spoke to Ayal and I just said, look, on Thursday and in the next race, wherever the next race was, I want to stand up in front of the guys and just try to, you know, remind them who we are, basically. you know telling them how well we started um telling them for example how strong our pit stops were at the end of last year i remember in mexico when i finished fourth it was the highest pressure pit stop of the season we were head-to-head against mercedes and and we did a faster pit stop than them all of these things are easy to forget when when you're going through a tough run um but reminding all of these guys what they're capable of doing is is really important to to keep them motivated and even though in austria or i think it was austria when i spoke to them it didn't you know put us in the top 10 because it's not by talking to the guys that the cars magically three times faster um i really felt a renewed sense of you know motivation from from them and um yeah like i said i think it's an important thing now you mentioned mexico a moment ago oliver behrman will get his personal best results in formula one of p4

22:18what was it like having a mercedes and a mclaren on your gearbox for so long yeah that was an interesting race um for sure i remember just because obviously all of the races are 300ks or just over 300 kilometers. So on a track like Mexico, it's 70 laps. You know, last week in Spa, it's 40. But I remember after five laps or so, I was in P4 or P3 even. And I remember my engineer coming on the radio and saying, okay, Oli, good job. We're P3, 65 laps to go. And I was like, oh my God, this is going to be a long day. Obviously, the distance is the same, but it feels a whole lot longer when you've got that number of laps ahead of you.

23:03but honestly the car was incredible that weekend I was able to put it right on the limit every lap not do any mistakes um it gave me what was interesting is that you hadn't even done FP1 that weekend right yeah I didn't and I had a tough FP2 as well yeah so did you feel a little bit undercooked going into the race because you hadn't got the long run to be honest I had a really good long run in FP2 and I saw it and I was like that's super weird because you know in the quality sim I had an issue and and um and we couldn't get the quality pace out but you know the other car we didn't look hugely competitive and you know on my side i didn't have a proper quality sim so we looked to be not in the fight for q3 basically um but then i did the the high fuel and i was like as quick as the ferraris as the mclarens i was like that's weird maybe they're running more fuel than us but we were at max fuel so they couldn't have so i was like a bit confused by by that you know really competitive race pace um but then actually it translated in in the race you know i was super quick in the race and um you know that that was a tough saturday you know coming in having not done any any low fuel but the guys put the car in an excellent setup window and and you know that proves and we've had it a few times this year as well when the car is is really dialed in it's so incredibly quick it just feels like a real knife edge and and really tough to get it in in that window interesting point oh there's so much to talk about but you say on a knife edge right driving the cars on the limit last year ground effect versus this year are your inputs slightly different this year it's changed a bit you know because last year with the ground effect era the balance in high speed was was very much on the limit with the touching and the bouncing that was always kind of you know present that's not the case anymore and my back is very thankful for that because that wasn't obviously the most comfortable thing so the car has been more predictable through the speed range and doesn't do any now nowadays it doesn't do any strange things which we we suffered a lot you know when the rear would start bouncing the loads go all over the place and and you start to suffer a lot we suffered a bit more i think than other teams with that but but it was always there in the ground effect here and now we don't have any of that which is which is nice but of course the car has quite a lot less downforce and that's something you have to get used to you know it moves around a bit more you have to drive it a bit differently as a result of that you can't be as aggressive on the brakes or as aggressive in in the initial turn in um but i feel like you know i've adapted to that very well and i'm quite happy with how much i'm getting out of of this car despite our you know underperformance i would say relative to competition and do you think you've driven some races this year as good as mexico last year but we just haven't necessarily kind of seen it.

25:49And that's the thing that really hurts because Mexico was a great weekend. You know, it was really, really strong, but I felt like I'd also had stronger weekends in 2025. I mean, Qatar was a great example of a weekend where I really performed super well. I was running in the top 10 in the race behind the Ferrari, and then we had an issue in the pit stop and I DNF'd. but that was a weekend where I really didn't put a foot wrong and I was super happy with my performance. And Sao Paulo? Yeah, Sao Paulo was also very, very strong. I came this year, China was a good event, but also the events where we didn't really do necessarily well.

26:31I felt like I did a great Barcelona weekend, I felt like I did a great Silverstone, even Austria. uh spa spa has been maybe one of my most complete weekends of of my career qualifying i was so happy with with my performance and i was p15 so you know that that that is really tough because the results really don't translate to to performance but with my personal team like my my coach and my manager and um my physio we try our best to look at things objectively and and you know even if we're not fighting for for q2 at times um it's important to to try and make sure you're performing at a high level um and that doesn't really change based on on performance you know you need to remove performance from the the equation in a way but ollie are ferrari seeing what you're doing this year are they looking at the data still i mean you know you i hope so i hope so because you know like i'm saying it's it's easy to see those poor results and and think nothing of them no think think that it's not going well but like i said on my side i really feel the progression i'm sure that that they understand and i think everybody who's you know watching closely understands what's going on and and yeah that's do you speak to fred a lot fred not really not about racing not about um yeah how i'm doing and things like that i mean of course he's a very very busy guy and we don't have much time to catch up that's not really my job at the end to almost plead with him and ask him but um because ollie it's interesting isn't it amazing what a difference a year makes because we're speaking in hungary it was here a year ago where you know lewis hamilton was really frustrated they need to change the driver he was saying after qualifying wasn't he and you were so in the mix i think there are a lot of people thinking is bam i'm going to be in the ferrari in 2026 and then you had that amazing run of what was it however many five consecutive points finishes something like that which included which included mexico and stuff like that and yet a year on it seems that lewis has got his mojo back he's gonna it looks like he's gonna stay at ferrari for the foreseeable i mean what does the future look like for you now?

28:53Yeah, of course, things have changed a lot, maybe in the last six months. And to be honest, as an F1 fan, and a Lewis fan as well, because, you know, he's pretty much been at the front of, well, he has been at the front of every race I remember watching since maybe 2012. You know, he's always been in the mix. It's pretty cool to see him performing at the level he is, and seeing him on the top step in Barcelona was quite a special moment for British F1 in general. You know, it was three Brits on the podium with the best British driver, the best driver we've ever seen in P1. I mean, that's something pretty special.

29:34Of course, you know, in terms of my future, that's not ideal. But, you know, I'm still young. I'm only 21. I'm not in a huge rush. and for me staying at Haas for the foreseeable is not a bad thing. I feel like there's a lot to learn at this team. There's a lot to still achieve. I really want to get back to those highs which we tasted in Mexico and other events. I feel like they're on a good trajectory, this team, and I'm really happy to be on the journey with it. It's a tough moment right now, and of course it's a really challenging one and one that builds character, I would say. But I don't want to be defined as, you know, the team who had a really good first year with me, but then we really struggled to, you know, achieve that performance again.

30:26So hopefully we can get a bit more performance and score some good points again. And I guess as the regulations mature, something you said earlier, the teams will get closer, the gains will get less, and that's when Haas maybe becomes a serious player again. Given our challenges that we face at the moment, that looks to favor us a bit more. However, we have a very clear plan in place, which is to be fighting at the front of the midfield in the near future on pure merit. And that's what we're targeting. And that hopefully means that one day, regardless of a new set of regs, an old set of regs, a high gradient of updates or whatever, we're going to be at the front.

31:16And that's what I hope to achieve with Haas. You've just spoken very positively about Haas. I get it. But I'm going to put a question to you now, which is the driver market looks quite fluid, right? And I'm thinking of Fernando Alonso. Is he going to stay? Is he going to go? What's Fernando's future look like? Would you ever consider leaving the Ferrari family and take a you know a punt on a team like Aston were that to be an option or are you 100 % committed to the Ferrari program and what they've got planned no I'm of course very much committed to what Ferrari have offered me and they've supported me since the very beginning since I joined F3 and I'm only sitting here thanks to them you know so on on one side I I owe a lot to Ferrari I also So, you know, for me, Ferrari is the dream team, not only because I'm part of Ferrari, but just because it's the most iconic brand probably in the world.

32:12So my goal remains to be a Ferrari driver one day. That, you know, at the moment is the case. And then, you know, we need to see how things develop. of course I don't want to be sitting around for three four five years waiting for a seat to become available because there's no no guarantees you know and then you can be wasting your best years my ultimate goal is maybe a bit selfish and that's okay because that's the reason I'm here and that's because I want to be fighting for for world championships so if I can have that opportunity wherever I will take it if that means it's not with Ferrari because they can't offer me that position then that's life you know that's not that's not up to me so yeah of course i i i want to be fighting for wins for championships and whatever team i believe that's that's possible with i'm i'm happy to take the step with them aston martin are going through a tough time but i'm sure that one day they'll be incredibly strong um but i wouldn't say i'm looking towards them at this stage how much time do you spend in marinello now because you know half of has is is base there isn't it yeah we do a lot of simulator work you know we still use ferrari's um simulator they have two they have one for for their weck program um for the academy which i was using a lot but also for has uh and then of course the new one which which is just ferrari f1 but um you know i would say that i'm there maybe 20 days a year um 20-25 days a year it's better than last year you know last year was not enough sim days and i really struggled at the start of the year with that lack of sim work.

33:49And this year with the new regs, I really pushed the guys to get us at the sim as much as possible. But of course, it's a big expense for the team. However, it's been really, really positive. And I really enjoy coming back to Maranello because it's a huge part of my life. You know, I lived there for two years or over two years. Actually, can you explain the story of how you became a Ferrari young driver? Because it's actually quite unusual for a Brit to end up with Ferrari. people sort of more traditionally go with the McLarens and the Mercedes right yeah it was quite funny actually with Kimi we were talking um that when we were racing an F2 I was the British guy with an Italian team and he was the Italian guy with a British team in the sense that you know the F1 team of Merc is is based in in the UK um no I ended up with with Ferrari of course at the time I was racing Formula 4 there was actually a lot of interest from three driver programs um Ferrari was the one that we ended up deciding on just because the route looked the clearest and the most feasible to Formula 1.

34:57So in that sense, we picked well. And yeah, I was winning in Formula 4 Italian Championship, which is quite a, you know, it's a very competitive one. Probably the most competitive in Formula 4. and um Ferrari invited us to come to to their factory and it was interesting because it was kind of like a football scouting you know where where they actually they actually test you firsthand which wasn't really going to be the case with with other academies um so yeah that was uh that was really cool and and I was really happy to to get the offer um from Ferrari at the end When you say test you, Ferrari engineers were watching what you were doing in the car or was it more of a physical test?

35:43It was a bit of everything. We had physical testing, mental testing, also meetings with the big bosses. At the time it was Mattia and Laurent, who I still have a great relationship with. And I'm super thankful to them both for taking me on the program. But I think I guess the most important was the on-track testing. we were driving an f4 car in fiorano which is which is their test track that was very special because you know i drove out of that shell famous shell garage um which i'd seen videos of of michael fernando sebastian all of these people i mean even now lewis doing that um so it was a very special special thing for me and you drove your first f1 car at fiorano as well right yeah like it was a year and a half later that I was driving an f1 car out of those garage doors that is quite a steep curve you're right in terms of did you choose well yeah that was that was pretty impressive so in 18 months I went from driving an f4 car out that garage to driving an f1 car out that garage for my first f1 test and um with my parents there as well it was an incredibly special day for me and I still have the picture of myself with all of the mechanics and engineers that helped me on that day i mean every time i you know i often walk past the ferrari garage and i still have a great relationship with all of those mechanics because they gave me that opportunity for my first ever test my first ever race as well so no matter what i i always have you know a bit of my heart with ferrari ollie what what is fiorano like i'll never forget i was just starting in formula one myself when um michael schumacher moved from benetton to ferrari and his first test at the end of 1995 at Fiorano white overalls because he was still under contract to Benetton he drives there and I think it was turn one he came straight in after his first run and said we need to change turn one because it doesn't represent any corner that we currently race at in Formula One and I just thought wow attention to detail first test with Ferrari and you're saying this lap yeah this iconic racetrack mate we've got to change yeah but what is it like is it is it really slow just lots of hairpins and yeah it's a slow speed track you know they're very limited by space um but you know it's it's pretty perfect for testing and back in the day they would run like every day on that circuit you know back when testing was was permitted pretty much whenever you wanted nowadays it's a bit more restricted but you know aside from the 1000 fans standing around the perimeter of the circuit it's a perfect track to do your first f1 test and also an iconic one as well i mean driving in in fiorano is is something that not many people get to do uh it's very special when you're in marinello can you sense 76 years of f1 history the only team that's you know raced every year yeah it's it's very special and i'm talking with some people who'd been there for a very long time you know since the the schumacher era and even prior to that it's really cool to see how how they speak about michael and and going through some some parts of of the factory which are let's say haven't been updated recently is still have pictures of of those guys and and kimmy and felipe and all of these guys who who are really the backbone of this century of Ferrari so it's incredibly special and actually there's a very cool staircase which has every car that they've ever won the Constructors Championship with and that's really really special Going back to the 50s right?

39:24Back to the very beginning, back to the first ever car they won the Constructors with so it's cool to see the history and how much success Ferrari has had it's very special and humbling Cadillac has entered Formula One, deepening the racing pedigree behind every V-Series on the road. Discover a line-up that delivers pure adrenaline in the form of modern luxury. Experience the quickest Cadillac ever, the all-electric Lyric V, the peak performance of the CT5V Blackwing, the nimble agility of the Optic V, and the legendary roar of the Escalade V, all engineered to thrill. Find out more about Cadillac's performance story in Formula One and our race-tested V-Series lineup at cadillac.com.

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41:02can i talk to you now about senna's lotus airton senna 1985 yeah you drove it at silverstone didn't you and i saw the feature on sky and you were really emotional tell us why did that car make you so emotional um i think it was a mixture of things i mean the first was well the most important was was that it was the exact chassis that that Ayrton won his first ever racing you know for me Ayrton Senna I never got to watch him live of course um by 10 years I didn't make it um but you know he's someone that everybody regarded as as the absolute best and and you know it was such a tragic day in in 1994 and you know for me driving his first ever car with his mechanic running the car, his engineer was there, you know, on the day with me in Silverstone.

42:05It was just such an emotional moment for me, sharing it with my father, with my girlfriend, who have been with me along these huge steps. And just knowing the history of Ayrton and his, you know, amazing career and tragic end, it was a very powerful moment for me. And I knew, to be honest, I knew that I would get really emotional because with these things, I sometimes really can't control, you know, these emotions. And I knew it, you know, that as soon as my manager told me what I was going to be doing, which was a month before, I knew that it was going to be a really powerful day. And driving the car was really one of the best days of my life.

42:50And yeah, I think, you know, that those emotions hit me really hard after. and what was the car like to drive i mean you got a what an h pattern stick shift yeah was that i mean you've never well you've never raced a stick shift right never never so how did you find that also to be honest i i my manual my first car was of course a manual so i i know how to drive manual that's that's obvious but being british and having a right hand drive car the gearbox or the gear stick is on on the left side so i'm i'm really good with a manual on the left side and if it if it's ever a manual race car I feel great and very fluid with it but being the right hand and also since I'm left-handed it just felt really strange to have the gearbox on the right side um but you know I I got used to it to be honest at Silverstone with it being such a high track high speed track you don't have to do many gear changes if it was like Hungary I would have struggled a lot more um to get around but yeah it was to be honest you know you have the first lap of getting used to it and feeling all of the things, the turbo lag and getting used to the heel and toe.

43:58Did you do that? Yeah, of course. It's important. Otherwise, you can damage the gearbox. When they told me that there's only one of these cars and it's worth 15 million, I was like, oh my gosh. I hope I don't get this wrong. But once I got used to that, and especially in the high-speed section where you're only having to do one downshift and it's not that intensive in terms of the manual gearbox, the car felt impressively formula one-esque you know i was expecting a big step to go back there um what in terms of grip you know in terms of grip stiffness um liveliness you know the car is so light so it so it was also really nervous and alive it was just incredibly cool to drive it had a lot of power but also good drivability so yeah i i to be honest i was really enjoying it and I would have loved to have a full test day in a car like that to get the most out of it.

44:54Maybe not that one because it's worth like 15 million and I'm sure that I would crunch a gear at some point but yeah maybe one of the cars that Etten didn't drive but was racing in that era you know one that's worth a whole lot less. It's so fun to hear you speaking so enthusiastically about a car like that and did you then jump from that into the TPC Haas am I right? yeah I think so yeah yeah but to be honest how different was that sort of two-year-old yeah I mean I didn't I didn't I got back in the F1 of last year I drove it just after and it was totally normal you know it was just what I'm used to and yeah where did you drive it I drove it in Jerez it was was really fun very hot very very hot so maybe not not ideal for for the tires but you know nice to feel some downforce again after having driven these 2026 cars which are obviously missing a bit but it was funny with the center car i did two laps and at the end of the second lap i thought okay actually now i feel quite confident i've understood the gears and everything i know what gear to be in for every corner so let's push a bit more and i remember they were incredibly strict about me only doing three laps you know they said come on the engine's been built rebuilt and and you know we can't afford to to you know damage it or anything and you're thinking 15 million 15 million exactly three lap limit really hard and and and he said okay when you see the the camera car because that was a camera car on track when you see it on the exit of maggots and beck it's just pull in behind and follow it back to the to the pits but i remember thinking just as going into maggots and beck is i thought oh i can't i can't stop yet i i've just got started you know so i remember doing one more lap but you overtook the camera i went straight past the camera car flat out um all of the pit wall were not watching anymore because they're expecting me to come into the pits and i flew past for one more and that was a real glory lap i really enjoyed it and i remember coming in the brakes had a bit of smoke coming off them because i was really really pushing on it on the last lap it was super fun yeah that's amazing well let's end this by just throwing it forward to the rest of this year you mentioned earlier that you got the upgrade coming just look what you're 13th in the championship now you finished 13th last year what are your goals well not to finish 13th again i don't want that to become a trend um like my run of p11s last year you did own that for a while yeah exactly so to be honest i would love a few p11s right now that would be a good result but no it's um for me that the goal is is purely on personal performance because i'm i'm not in control of of you know how fast our competition is and nor are we really in control of how fast we are at certain moments um so you know i'm doing my very best to continue to to perform well and for me this you know successful second half of the year will will be looking back at budapest and thinking okay since budapest i'm clearly able to achieve you know better results better performances and and drive at a higher level for me if I can have that continued improvement that's the sign of a of a of a good second half of the year and some points would also be nice can you tell us about the gap between you and Esteban as well because I've been looking purely at qualifying which seems the most sensible way to look at it where's the gap opened up I feel like I you know I can only speak about myself on my side I feel like I've been able to do much more consistent qualifiers I've been able to put the car in a better setup window as well compared to last year to always give myself the best opportunity to to get the most out of it and generally I just feel like I'm performing at a much higher level than I than I was last year where last year I would always end up doing a little mistake in a qualifying lap somewhere trying to get that last 10th and and lose two and you know that would put me behind Esteban whereas now understanding the tires and the car and the sport a bit more I understand to leave maybe that half a tenth on the table or quarter of a tenth on the table to guarantee consistency so I feel like I'm doing really consistent and good qualifying performances and that's an area where I've always been on the strong side and this year I've done another step forward in that regard so i'm really happy with that how you're even able to visualize half a tenth quarter of a tenth that's yeah it's a little thing maybe you know i'm not doubting you feel like you're leaving it's extraordinary you feel like you're leaving it on the on the table you know you say okay maybe i could could push the entry a little bit more here but but you know with the car we have which is maybe a bit a bit difficult to predict at times is it worth taking that risk because if i have a snap i'm gonna lose two tens or more and and weighing up that risk of road is something that i'm doing a better job of now than i was six months or even 12 months ago and only while while the car performance isn't there do you take some confidence from what kimmy antonelli is doing you know he was your teammate in f2 you went toe to toe together i mean who can forget your race in monaco but anyway that was good but do you take some confidence saying you know kimmy having the year he's having you just need the right car and no i take a huge amount of confidence in that and and that's why i i it's probably why i can sleep well at night you know knowing that that kimmy even isaac you know these are guys who are performing incredibly well in in cars that are also very fast um it proves to me that i have what it takes because i've raced these guys throughout my junior career and have stacked up you know positively against them so that tells me that it's just a matter of time.

50:40I'm not in a rush, but when I get the car that can win races, I'm going to win races. I think that's a brilliant place to end it. Look, Oli, thank you so, so much for your time. Best of luck with everything. Can I stop by the bike shop for a coffee? Of course. Friends and family discount. Plus 20%. Hang on, discount plus 20%. All right. Good luck. Good stuff. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks a lot.

51:12I have no doubt that Oli will win races in the right car. He's a phenomenal talent and a great guy. He's decent on a bike as well, although not with his friends and family discount at his bike shop. There's so much to take from this chat. Oli comes across as intelligent and articulate, and it's no surprise that he's developing into a team leader. Just look at the way he gathered everyone at Haas together before the Austrian Grand Prix to pump them up and remind them how good they are. Oli, I love this conversation. Thank you for your time. Now enjoy the break and I'll see you soon. Haas team principal Ayo Komatsu joined me on F1 Beyond the Grid earlier this year and was also full of praise for Oli, saying that if Ferrari do end up giving him a seat one day, then Ayo and Haas will have done their job well.