Oliver Bearman will step into the F1 hot seat again this weekend in Azerbaijan as he fills in for Kevin Magnussen at Haas.
Oliver Bearman has conceded he is anticipating the need to take risks to build confidence in Baku ahead of his second F1 race event.
Bearman has been called up to replace Kevin Magnussen at Haas for this weekend after the Dane was handed a race ban following the Italian Grand Prix after hitting the 12 penalty points threshold on his superlicence.
The outing will be Bearman's second of the season after he substituted for Carlos Sainz at Ferrari in Saudi Arabia earlier this year.
Bearman has experience around the Baku City Circuit, taking pole position and two race wins at the venue in Formula 2 last year.
The Briton, who will race full-time for Haas next season, conceded he has had to deal with a duo of challenging tracks to make his initial impressions in F1.
“Yeah, it's definitely a tough track,” Bearman told media including RacingNews365. “It's my second race in F1 and it's my second street track that I'm racing.
“It’s been a bit of a tough draw - if I could have picked two races, it probably wouldn't have been these.
“Then again I had success here last year, it went well.”
While he enjoyed success in F2, it wasn't trouble-free as he hit the wall on occasion.
The 19-year-old pinpointed the braking zones as his biggest concern for the weekend as he looks to impress.
“The difficult part is building up the confidence on a track like this because the walls are close,” he said.
“Without having confidence on the brakes, you struggle to be fast. To get the confidence on the brakes, it's risky.
“I did touch the wall quite a few times last year, most notably in qualifying, where I bent the suspension, which wasn't my finest moment.
“I somehow managed to do the pole, but I don't think I'll get away with that this year in F1 so I'm going to leave a bit more safety margin, especially in the first sessions.
“I think the main goal is to build up the confidence and really be confident in the car and myself before I start to push and find the limits.”
