Ollie Bearman opens up on emotional Ayrton Senna Lotus F1 drive: “Very powerful moment”
Haas Formula 1 driver Oliver Bearman has opened up on his deeply emotional experience driving Ayrton Senna’s 1985 race-winning Lotus, admitting the moment moved him to tears.
In a recent appearance on the F1 Beyond The Grid podcast, Bearman detailed his unforgettable run in Senna’s iconic Lotus 97T at Silverstone. The 21-year-old Briton drove the exact chassis in which the three-time champion claimed his maiden grand prix victory in 1985, an experience he described as “one of the best days of my life”.
Despite being born a decade after Senna’s tragic death, Bearman revealed the profound impact the opportunity had on him, especially as he shared the paddock with his father and girlfriend, alongside Senna’s original mechanic, who ran the car on the day, and former driver Karun Chandhok.
“I think it was a mixture of things. Well, the most important was that it was the exact chassis that Ayrton won his first ever race in,” Bearman explained. “For me, Ayrton Senna, I never got to watch him live, of course. But he’s someone that everybody regarded as the absolute best, and it was such a tragic day in 1994.
“For me, driving his first-ever car with his mechanic running the car. His engineer was there on the day with me at Silverstone. It was just such an emotional moment for me, sharing it with my father and my girlfriend, who have been with me along these huge steps, and knowing the history of Ayrton and his amazing career and tragic end. It was a very powerful moment for me.
“I knew that I would get really emotional because with these things I sometimes really can’t control these emotions. As soon as my manager told me what I was going to be doing, which was a month before, I knew that it was going to be a really powerful day.
“Driving the car was really one of the best days of my life, and those emotions hit me really hard after.”
Ayrton Senna, Lotus 97T Renault
Photo by: LAT Images via Getty Images
The Haas driver was given strict orders to complete just three laps to preserve the engine, but he managed to squeeze in an additional run.
“They said, ‘OK, when you see the camera car, because there was a camera car on track, when you see it on the exit of Maggotts and Becketts, just pull in behind and follow it back to the pits,'” he explained.
“But I remember thinking, ‘Oh, I can’t stop yet. I’ve just got started.’ So, I remember doing one more lap.
“I went straight past the camera car flat out. All of the pitwall were not watching anymore because they were expecting me to come into the pits, and I flew past for one more, and that was a real glory lap.
“I really enjoyed it. And I remember coming in; the brakes had a bit of smoke coming off them because I was really, really pushing on it on the last lap. It was super fun.”
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