Ollie Bearman has been one of the breakout drivers of 2026 so far, and Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu says there’s no point worrying about the young Briton being taken by Ferrari in future.
The 20-year-old produced a strong start to the season with seventh and fifth-place finishes in the first two Grands Prix, building on a strong second half of his rookie campaign that included a fourth place in Mexico City. Bearman currently sits seventh in the Drivers’ Championship, ahead of both Red Bull drivers and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.
“I haven’t seen [his] limit yet,” Komatsu told Beyond The Grid. “I’m really looking forward to this year. He’s got huge, huge potential.”
Bearman’s links to Ferrari are well known: he is a former Ferrari Academy driver and made his F1 debut for the Scuderia at the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, standing in for Carlos Sainz after the Spaniard withdrew with appendicitis. Haas also run Ferrari power units in the VF-26, and Bearman’s rise — having finished ahead of Esteban Ocon in the 2025 standings — only increases talk of a potential move.
Despite those links, Komatsu is focused on what his team can control. “It’s no point worrying about it,” he said when asked if he feared losing Bearman to Ferrari. “I’m a strong believer in controlling what you can control. Ferrari has been investing in him for many, many years. So, we’ve got him for last year and this year, so we’ve got to focus on what we can control. If we’ve done a great job with Ollie, and Ollie performed so well that Ferrari really wants to take him the following year, we have to be happy that we’ve done our job.”
Komatsu added that any future move would be a matter for discussions between Haas and Ferrari, but insisted the team’s priority is extracting the best performance from both car and driver. “If that meant we lost him for next year, hopefully not. But that’s not something we can control.”
Haas sit fourth in the Constructors’ Championship after their strong start to the season, leading the midfield and holding a two-point advantage over Alpine and Red Bull.