YOUNG AND FAST

Mention Varano to people in these parts and the Autodromo Riccardo Paletti comes immediately to mind. The circuit has witnessed innumerable young drivers compete in the preparatory racing categories that lead up to Formula 3 and Formula 2, themselves the proving grounds for the elite environment of Formula One.

Currently racing in Formula 2 for the Prema team is Oliver Bearman, the 19-year-old driver from Chelmsford, England. A Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy pilota, he is also currently third Reserve Driver for Scuderia Ferrari HP, for whom he debuted this March at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix when he stepped in to substitute Carlos Sainz after the Spanish racer was struck down by appendicitis.

The British teenager astonished the racing world and justified his call up into the Formula One set up. The convocation came on the Friday of the Jeddah meet, just two hours before the practice session that preceded qualifying. Come race day on the Saturday, the British rookie refused to be intimidated by his lightning-fast and much more experienced rivals, moving up from 11th position to take a highly creditable 7th place finish at his first Formula One chequered flag. Online fans and enthusiasts voted him their ‘Driver of the Day’ as he notched up six points on the driver’s board.

But the fresh-faced English rookie hasn’t come to the Autodromo Varano De’ Melegari near Parma today to climb into a single-seater. Instead, he’s come to be entrusted with a Ferrari SF90 XX Spider and put it through its paces on the undulating country roads that characterise this part of the Emilia-Romagna region.

The hills above the circuit are the perfect setting to fully enjoy a car with a thousand-plus horsepower. “When you first get in the car,” says Oliver, “you’re tempted to turn off all the electronic driving-assistance tools, but I tried a few kilometres with them on, and I must say they really are very finely tuned – they help the driver to get the best out of the driving experience without being too intrusive.”

However, it is in the astonishing responsiveness of the car that all the SF90 XX Spider’s sporting DNA really comes into play: “The steering is incredible, precise and instantly responsive,” assesses Oliver after his drive. “The same goes for the power delivery which, thanks to the help from the hybrid element, is almost immediate, with very little lag.”

Oliver readily admits that this opportunity to get his young hands on this particular Spider has had a twin effect upon him: “Not having ‘a roof over my head’ made things more relaxing. It reminded me that life should be savoured at a more measured and less frenetic pace than is often the case in our daily lives.” The wonderful surrounding landscape tended to make him go easier on the pedal and give some of that thousand-plus horsepower a bit of a rest. “But,” he adds, “then I realised that I was experiencing those sensations because some of my usual racing gear was missing: such as the helmet! In some ways, driving this Ferrari is a bit like being in the cockpit of a single-seater racer. But with a windscreen instead of the halo.”

This was the first time in his life that Bearman had driven a Ferrari other than the Formula One machines in test sessions, and of course in that stupendous Saudi Arabian Grand Prix that shot him to fame in the racing world. “The SF90 XX Spider and the Formula One SF-24 are completely different cars,” he suggests. “Yet, paradoxically, the power output is the same – that’s truly incredible and something that only Ferrari can make happen.”

The pretty hills of Italy’s Emilia-Romagna also hold their own charm for the English driver: “If things go well in my racing career one day I think I’ll have a house around here. I might struggle to choose between Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, though. I could settle down here, with the Varano circuit nearby, or I could go toward Imola. But I do like the Tuscan landscape too, and especially the Mugello track,” he says. Here’s hoping that in the future Ollie Bearman has the chance to live near the track that thrills him the most.