As Ferrari's reserve driver, which included private testing as well as FP1 and testing duties with Haas, Bearman was sufficiently prepared to jump in at short notice.
But what impressed the paddock the most was his calm and composed demeanour. He didn't buckle during an intense start and first-lap melee and properly found his groove during the second stint on hard tyres, keeping up with the drivers ahead of him.
When asked if he felt any nerves at the start, he replied: "Honestly, surprisingly it felt like any other race.
"The procedure is a bit different to F2 race start, but once the lights were on you were focusing on what is around you.
"Luckily the F4 radios weren’t broadcast, but in F3 I was a bit more irate and I’ve learnt over the years that doesn’t bring any performance.
"No matter what I tried to stay calm, especially in a situation like this. We knew the race was going to come towards us so I stayed calm and let it come.
Bearman conceded he was "learning on the job" after Yuki Tsunoda and Nico Hulkenberg initially outsmarted him in energy deployment.
On the restart I did a pretty good move on [Tsunoda] and I don’t think he expect me to cover the inside.
"I had a lot more pace than these guys and they were just a bit smarter than me with energy usage, which is something I’ve never had to do before.
"I was pretty much learning on the job. Especially with Nico, he seemed to use his battery in all the right places and I seemed to use it in all the wrong places, so it took me a few laps to figure it out.
"I stayed disciplined and didn’t try to overpush.
