Berman: I’m not allowed to give reasons to doubt me

Just over three weeks ago, Oliver Burman, an 18-year-old British driver who competes for the Prema Formula 2 team, was given a rare opportunity to distinguish himself in the top category of motorsport, and he did not miss it.

Berman replaced Carlos Sainz at the wheel of the Ferrari, which was in urgent need of surgery, and did an excellent job earning points for 7th place on the difficult circuit in Jeddah. Naturally, after that they started talking about him as a potential candidate for a place in one of the World Cup teams in 2025.

“It was like madness! After all, I had to compete with the likes of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton and before the start it was nice to receive parting words from Sebastian Vettel,” Oliver recalled that weekend in an interview with the championship’s official website. – As a child I saw them racing in 2010, 2011 and 2012, and now I couldn’t even believe that I received such recognition, I even wanted to pinch myself.

I told Sebastian that I was a big fan of his talent. I supported him both when he played for Ferrari and when he moved to Aston Martin. After the race he said that I did well and should be proud of that.”

Oliver Berman studies at the Ferrari Racing Academy and has only been a reserve driver for the Scuderia since this year. In Jeddah he had minimal time to prepare for his unexpected debut in Formula 1, because he first only drove the SF-24 in training.

Fortunately, Oliver had experience driving this generation of cars, gained during private testing in Barcelona, ​​where he drove a 2022 Ferrari, and last year he completed two Friday practice sessions with Haas F1 (in Mexico City and Abu Dhabi). Even after the end of the season, Berman took part in tests at the same Yas Marina Circuit.

Naturally, he spent a lot of time working on the Ferrari simulator, although the virtual track cannot be considered a complete replacement of the real track, especially when it comes to the fast and treacherous ring in Jeddah. But Oliver was helped by his ability to quickly absorb large amounts of information.

“I’ve always been good at this. In my youth I spent so much time karting that I had to constantly catch up at school,” he says. “I think I was able to do it, and that skill is very useful in the motorsport world, especially on weekends like this where I had to take in so much information very quickly and there wasn’t time to fully absorb it.

I am a perfectionist in many things, although I am not the neatest person in life. For example, you can’t tell this if you look at what my hotel room looks like. But it seems to me that I am a perfectionist in everything related to sports. I get this quality from my father, who demands a lot from himself, and I try too.”

Last year in Abu Dhabi, Berman said he was ready for Formula 1, and when reminded of those words he said: “I remember saying that even though I had only driven a Formula 1 car for three days . I wasn’t quite sure I was ready for such a debut, but deep down I felt I could handle it. And now I’m glad I was right.

I hope this all continues and my aim is to get a seat in Formula 1, but in the short term we have to concentrate on F2. I have to show good results again.”

Oliver means that after three rounds of the youth series he is a distant 19th in the individual rankings – partly due to missing the round in Saudi Arabia, partly due to far from the most successful performances in Bahrain and Australia. But there are still 11 stages ahead, each of which has two races, and in addition, in Formula 2, points are awarded for winning qualifying. In Jeddah it was Berman who won pole position, but was unable to take advantage of it because the plans for the weekend had changed.

“Now it is necessary to perform as well as possible and not give reasons to doubt me – I believe I can get into Formula 1,” Oliver added.

According to experts, it is possible that he will become a Haas F1 driver in 2025, because this team has business and technological ties with Ferrari.