How Oliver Bearman stole the show in Mexico, his X-rated assessment of his duel with Max Verstappen, how his girlfriend reacted behind the scenes and what's next for F1's shooting star

Yes, Lando Norris produced what he considered one of the best weekends of his career, and rightly so as he took the world championship lead.

But another Briton, aged just 20, produced a defining drive of his young life.

The madness of the race in Mexico City was all going on behind Norris and the crushing victory that elevated him one point ahead of McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri with four rounds of the season remaining.

Remarkably, Ollie Bearman – pronounced bear as in grizzly, rather than beer as in ale – passed Max Verstappen as the Dutchman vied with Lewis Hamilton. Ollie’s father David was captured on TV punching the air and clapping his hands in unalloyed glee as the move stuck.

Bearman, who made a good start from ninth to finish a personal best of fourth for Ferrari-powered Haas, admitted: ‘Honestly, I was s****ing myself going side by side with Max, but it’s really cool to go wheel-to-wheel with people I’ve looked up to since I started watching F1.

‘I had him in my mirrors for a long time. It was the most pressure I’ve ever had in a race.’

Bearman’s girlfriend Alicia Torriani was delighted too, wiping a tear from her eye. And thus another fine talent in the conveyor belt of British Formula One stars had delivered his latest calling card.

His first such harbinger of possible successes to come was conjured in Saudi Arabia last year, when he stood in as an 11th-hour replacement for the appendicitis-struck Carlos Sainz. 

Jumping into the Ferrari, no less, he finished seventh with a verve and calmness that won the debutant rave reviews from more established colleagues.

Still on Ferrari’s books and sent to Haas to hone his skills this season, his ambition is to land a permanent seat at the Scuderia. Perhaps when Hamilton, 40, retires, one wonders.

Bearman was emotional seeing his family’s rapture at his achievements on Sunday, which included holding off Piastri in the closing laps, calmly keeping the door shut. A late virtual safety car helped him preserve his position, but he may not have been overtaken regardless of that. 

Whatever, he restricted Piastri to fifth, consequently delivering the championship lead to Norris. Ciao!

Now, ‘Ciao!’ is what Bearman exclaimed as he unfurled a series of overtakes in the Chinese Grand Prix. He apologised for his flippancy, having not realised his words over the radio would be broadcast. I thought it a shame that he recanted – ‘Ciao’ could have become his tongue-in-cheek trademark.

At a fraction over 6ft 2in, Bearman is tall for an F1 driver. Only George Russell, Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg are anything like so giant-like in a Lilliputian world.

He is certainly quick, the essential talent in place, even if there have been moments of naivety this season, the odd silly mistake as befits his youthful inexperience.

There is a determination to the Chelmsford-born racer, too. His hybrid accent testifies to this. There is not too much discernible Essex twang to it. That is because as part of his tutelage at Ferrari, he cast himself off, aged 16, to Maranello, leaving behind his father, self-made boss of the Aventum insurance firm, his mother Terri, two siblings, King Edward VI Grammar School (against his mother’s pro-educational wishes), an English Bull Terrier and a Boston Terrier.

He now lives in Monaco in a rented apartment, earns some £300,000 a year, likely to double next year, and enjoys cycling the Riviera with Tour de France legend Tadej Pogacar.

And, as his exploits in Mexico showed, Bearman appears ready for the long climb against the best.