Ferrari Junior Rafael Camara Says Watching Ollie Bearman Reach F1 Gives Him ‘Motivation to Keep Improving’

• Ferrari Driver Academy member Rafael Camara says watching fellow Academy graduate Oliver Bearman reach Formula 1 has given him extra drive as he pushes for his own seat on the grid.
• The 21-year-old Brazilian sits third in the 2026 Formula 2 championship after nine rounds, with two wins and five podiums to his name.
• Camara pointed to Brazilian world champions Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet and Emerson Fittipaldi as figures who motivate him to succeed for his country.

Rafael Camara says the example set by Oliver Bearman is giving him extra drive as he pushes for his own route to Formula 1, with the Ferrari Driver Academy member calling his compatriot’s rise from F2 sub to full-time Haas driver a source of motivation.

Bearman was called up to replace an unwell Carlos Sainz at Ferrari for the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, arriving at the circuit with barely any track time before qualifying and going on to finish seventh in the race. The performance built his reputation inside the paddock and set him on the path to a full-time seat with Haas the following year.

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A Childhood Spent Watching Ferrari

Camara, speaking to Sky Sports F1, traced his love of the sport back to childhood, when he followed Fernando Alonso’s title fights in a Ferrari cockpit. “As a kid, you don’t know how big it will be, or what will happen,” he said of starting out in motorsport. “I always liked to watch F1, and for sure that was something that as a kid you always dreamed for, to be there.”

He recalled the 2012 season finale at Interlagos, where Alonso and Sebastian Vettel fought for the title. “I remember in that time I was supporting Alonso at Ferrari, and I remember also watching back in the day, the final race there was Alonso and Vettel fighting for the championship at Interlagos.”

Bearman’s Saudi Arabia Debut Left a Mark on the Academy

Bearman’s route into F1 came without warning. Sainz was admitted to hospital with appendicitis on the Thursday night of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend, and Ferrari turned to Bearman, then an 18-year-old F2 driver, to fill the seat. He had completed only FP3 before qualifying, yet reached Q2 and missed pole position in Q2 by 0.036 seconds, a lap compromised by a mistake on his first run in the second segment. He finished the race seventh, holding off Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris in the closing laps.

Team mate Charles Leclerc praised the display at the time: “He’s done an exceptional job to get into a Formula 1 car in FP3 when all the drivers have had FP1, FP2. You don’t know the car, the track is one of the most challenging of the season and you get there, you do the first three laps in FP3 and you are straight away on the pace and pushing the car to its limits.”

Camara pointed directly to that story as proof the Ferrari pathway can work. “For sure, it’s exciting. Also to see Ollie, from the Academy, and he had the opportunity to go to F1,” he said. “It gives me the motivation to keep working, to keep improving myself, and hopefully one day maybe I can get also another opportunity.”

Bearman’s own reaction to that Jeddah weekend showed the same standards Camara now says he wants to reach. He had only an FP3 session behind him before Qualifying, yet still missed Q3 by 0.036 seconds, and he admitted the near-miss stung. “It was so close, so close,” he told F1 TV’s cameras. “That’s why it hurts a bit more. I made a mistake on my first push [lap] so I had to do it on my second and the tyres aren’t really the best there, so my mistake and I’ll take that on the chin.”

In the race itself, Bearman kept his car clean through the opening laps, worked his way through traffic with moves on Yuki Tsunoda and Nico Hulkenberg, and held off a late attack from Hamilton and Norris to finish seventh, a result that boosted Ferrari’s early-season points tally. Reflecting on the weekend afterward, Bearman said: “I think I put in a good showing for myself, which is the main thing right? It’s difficult circumstances, not a lot of laps on track, but I think I maximised everything today.”

Chasing Senna, Piquet and Fittipaldi

Should Camara make it to Formula 1, he would become the latest Brazilian on the grid after Gabriel Bortoleto’s debut in 2025, joining a list of countrymen that includes three world champions in Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet and Emerson Fittipaldi.

Camara said their achievements carry real meaning for the current generation of Brazilian drivers coming through the ranks. “We saw what they did for our country, what they did in the sport,” he said. “I think this, for sure, is something that motivates us, and I think it makes us want to do well, representing also our country.”

A Karting Career Built on Titles

Camara’s route to F2 has been built on results at every rung of the ladder below it. He has won races in karting, taken the F4 title, and claimed championships in both Formula Regional and F3 on his way to the second tier of single-seater racing.

That record has carried into a strong campaign in F2. Camara holds third place in the 2026 standings after nine rounds, with 145 points, two wins and five podiums, trailing Red Bull-backed Nikola Tsolov on 167 points and Alpine-backed Gabriele Minì on 147.

Camara is not the only Brazilian hoping to follow Bortoleto’s example. Bortoleto himself is now in his second F1 season with Audi, and Sky Sports’s mid-season driver ratings scored him 6.5 out of 10, noting he has finished in the top 11 in six straight races without always converting that pace into points. It is the kind of steady progress Camara is hoping to replicate on his own route up the ladder.

A Tight Fight to the Finish

Camara described the 2026 F2 field as one of the toughest he has raced in, with a deep group of drivers pushing each other from round to round. “Many good drivers are repeating [by staying in F2], and also a lot of good drivers are coming up, so there are a lot of fights,” he said.

He added that every point counts extra with the season still to be decided. “It’s been a championship that is… In a way, you really need to take everything, because in the end I think every single point will matter, everyone has been so competitive.”

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Written by

Jack Renn

Jack Renn is an editor at F1 Chronicle and a veteran motorsport journalist with 25 years of experience covering Formula 1 and international motorsport. A member of the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS), the global body representing accredited sports journalists, Jack has spent his career reporting from paddocks and press rooms across the F1 calendar. His work spans race analysis, technical insight, and in-depth features, giving readers authoritative coverage grounded in decades of firsthand experience at the highest level of the sport.

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