Oliver Bearman shares his personal experiences with the Nordschleife. The rookie was asked about his adventures on the German circuit following Max Verstappen‘s racing debut at the Nürburgring. Bearman reveals how he drove a few laps on the German track with his family at the age of fifteen: ‘Mom kept screaming all the way round’.
Max Verstappen swapped his RB21 for a GT car for one weekend and obtained his license for the famous Nordschleife Nürburgring in his spare time between the Grands Prix of Italy and Azerbaijan. The Dutchman has already received many compliments from his Formula 1 colleagues for his excursion. For instance, Nico Hülkenberg called Verstappen a ‘passionate driver’, and Alexander Albon tipped his hat to his former teammate.
Oliver Bearman – in his first year in Formula 1 – is also impressed by the more experienced driver. “I hope that one day in my career I will be so far that I can drive like Max and do that purely out of passion,” Bearman tells in Azerbaijan. “Of course, I’m not there yet, but it’s so impressive to see what he can do and how talented he is as a driver. It’s insane. I think he’s probably the best driver we’ve ever seen.”
The Bearman Family’s Nordschleife Adventure
The Brit himself does not have much experience with the ‘Green Hell’ in Germany. “Only on the simulator,” Bearman admits honestly. “I did drive one lap with my father when I was racing on the GP circuit in the German Formula 4. It was during COVID, so we had our family car brought over from the United Kingdom. An Audi Q7. I was fifteen at the time, so I wasn’t allowed to drive. We were allowed to drive three laps, and I had to tell my father which turns were coming up.”
However, not all members of the Bearman family could enjoy the laps around the Nordschleife. “After the first lap, my mother wanted to get out of the car because she kept screaming all the way around. During the second lap, we could go faster, but at the end of that lap, we stopped. The brake fluid was leaking from the brake calipers. That wasn’t great, and we decided not to drive the last lap, as we needed the car the next day to drive to school.”
