Haas boss insists Bearman cannot be compared to Mazepin

The boss of F1’s smallest team has rubbished comparisons between 2025 rookie Oliver Bearman and former Haas driver Nikita Mazepin.

Since Haas unsuccessfully paired Russian driver Mazepin with another rookie Mick Schumacher back in 2021, the team has only run highly experienced drivers.

That is changing for 2025, with 19-year-old Ferrari junior Bearman to be paired with the experienced but controversial Alpine refugee Estaban Ocon.

When asked if he’s worried about his first driver pairing selection since taking over from former Haas boss Gunther Steiner, Ayao Komatsu answered: "You have to trust your drivers and make them feel comfortable. Then they’ll perform.

"Esteban definitely has the talent and the right work ethic," the Japanese told Auto Motor und Sport. "He really wanted to be part of our project. He is still young and has something to prove.

"It is our job to create the right environment for both drivers and make sure they work well together. Maybe I am a bit naive, and maybe I will be proved wrong, but if I wasn’t fully convinced that both will pull together for the team, I wouldn’t have chosen them."

Bearman impressed the F1 world when he scored points in his one-off debut in the ill Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari seat in Jeddah early this season - but his current season in Formula 2 has been less convincing.

"Everyone reacted like he won in Jeddah, but he wasn’t even matching the pace of the other Ferrari," 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve said.

"Bearman still needs to make that next step - he has done enough to deserve that chance at Haas but now we will see how good of a driver he really is."

As for Komatsu, he denied comparisons that are being made between Bearman’s Haas debut next year and the last rookie experiment with Mazepin.

"Every situation is different," he said. "You can’t put a Nikita Mazepin and an Ollie Bearman in the same category. That’s nonsense," the Haas team principal insisted. "I see clear potential in Ollie."

He also downplayed the significance of Bearman’s F2 struggles this season.

"I have no explanation for this because I don’t know enough about Formula 2 and the strengths and weaknesses of the Prema team," said Komatsu.

"For me, the data from his FP1 outings in our car are much more valuable. We have all the information we need from that."