Formula One 'I'm a competitive guy, I like to be good at everything I do'

Ollie Bearman has a full-time drive in F1 with Haas at the age of 19 but has made plenty of sacrifices to get there

- Giles Richards

There is an unmistakable air of steely determination about Ollie Bearman; an almost disquieting sense of purpose doubtless instrumental in propelling the 19-year-old British driver into Formula One with an eye-catching opening to his career.

Bearman is about to enter his first full season with the Haas team and while tearing most teenagers away from their friends is a torturous task, since he left home in Essex at 16 to pursue the dream of reaching F1, everything has been subsumed to the cause.

"I lost all of my friends pretty much in the UK," he says. "It's an unfortunate aspect of life but if that was the thing that got me to F1 I would give it up in a heartbeat every single time. I would have moved away five years earlier if it guaranteed me a seat in F1. There's no length, there's nothing that I wouldn't do to get to F1, there's nothing stopping me."

Tall and rakish thin, Bearman cuts a slight figure as we speak in anticipation of this weekend's opening race in Melbourne. His accent, coloured by all the time living away from home, is now noticeably almost unplaceable, international to the extent that he admits people are surprised when he reveals he is from Essex.

He makes for pleasant company, clearly still enjoying the sensation of having made it to F1. An endearing quality, yet one marked also by the resolute self-belief noticeable among great drivers during their exploratory steps into the sport. Lewis Hamilton had it, as did Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and most recently, Max Verstappen.