Oliver Bearman will join Haas in 2025 after starring with Ferrari at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix in March - as 19-year-old becomes the fourth Brit on the grid behind Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and George Russell

Ollie Bearman, the British teenager who caught the public imagination with a brilliant cameo for Ferrari, is set to be handed his big Formula One chance with Haas next year.

Mail Sport can reveal that the 19-year-old from Essex will become the fourth British driver on the grid, alongside Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and Lando Norris – though the new boy will earn a pittance compared to those more established names.

While Hamilton is paid £50million-plus by Mercedes, approximately equalling the fortune reaped by reigning world champion Max Verstappen at Red Bull, Bearman is expected to sign for between £250,000 and £300,000.

Currently a member of Ferrari’s academy, Bearman is paid nothing for competing in Formula Two, though the Italian team cover the cost of competition.

According to one informed insider, Bearman might double his money in his second year at Haas – should he impress well enough to retain his seat at the Ferrari-powered team.

But financial considerations are very much secondary for the Chelmsford-born racer, who is realising a boyhood dream by fulfilling what has looked increasingly likely to be his destiny for some time.

His passage to a full-time race seat, which is due to be confirmed in the coming weeks, was helped by his captivating performance in Saudi Arabia in March, when he was drafted in by Ferrari to replace Carlos Sainz with only a few hours’ warning – and no more than simulator experience of the car he was about to drive – after the Spaniard went down with appendicitis.

Becoming the youngest British F1 driver in history and third youngest of all nationality, he acquitted himself superbly to finish seventh on the scarily fast Jeddah circuit to win plaudits from his peers, as well as 1996 world champion Damon Hill, who declared: ‘A star is born.’

Bearman’s father David, who has made his millions in insurance, watched on proudly and somewhat nervously in the Ferrari garage.

Bearman Jnr has since returned to the more mundane fare of Formula Two, driving for the struggling Prema team. He lies 13th. Driving F2 machinery is like ‘driving a milk float’, he says, after his sample of high-octane Formula One.

Bearman’s elevation at Haas – a team improving under Ayao Komatsu, the Japanese former trackside engineering director, who has taken over as boss from Netflix ham Gunther Steiner – is reward for taking the gamble of his young life, against his mother Terri’s wishes back in 2021.

She wanted him to complete his education at King Edward VI Grammer School in his native city. But despite her initial reservations, he uprooted to a new life close to Ferrari’s factory in Maranello, Modena, northern Italy.

By then, aged 16, he had claimed the German and Italian Formula Four titles. Leaving behind his family and two dogs – an English Bull Terrier and a Boston Terrier – he started a new life impressing the famous team’s hierarchy with his maturity as well as his inherent skill.

Of his first F1 practice session, for Haas, in Mexico last year, Komatsu purred: ‘I really could not fault him.’ Bearman stepped in again in Abu Dhabi, and most recently last month at Imola.

With Nico Hulkenberg announcing in April that he would be departing for Sauber next year, a place opened up for the 6ft 2in Essex boy. With Kevin Magnussen’s place also under threat, Bearman’s promotion took on a sense of inevitability.

‘Maybe I got a bit lucky not to get the Essex accent,’ he said of his transformative move to Italy. ‘I spend a lot of time with Italians, so I have changed my word order and ended up with this “everywhere” accent.

‘Moving to Modena was like going to university two years early, but I have loved every moment. My mum was very pro-education, but we managed to convince her in the end.

‘I miss my family and my dogs. But the food in Italy is a big chunk above the English stuff, and the weather is better, too.’

Off track, Ollie is romantically linked to TikTok celebrity Estelle Ogilvy, who shares fashion tips under the pseudonym Silly Lettuce. So, the Englishman with the Italian twang is very much the modern, marketable Formula One commodity.

Even among the youthful British grand prix contingent – Norris is the youngest at 24 – Bearman’s juniority sets him apart. He was only 18 months old when a 22-year-old Hamilton made his debut, for McLaren, in 2007. Jenson Button was his boyhood hero, and he was delighted by the 2009 world champion’s praise of him on Sky on making his first F1 outing in Mexico.

‘My schoolmates used to laugh when I said I wanted to become a Formula One driver,’ recalled the personable Bearman recently. Well, they’re not laughing now, even if the greatest of the sport’s riches lie in the future.