2024-03-13 04:46:03
Only 18-year-old British driver Oliver Bearman drew attention to himself with a great debut in the Saudi Arabian Formula 1 Grand Prix.
As recently as Thursday, the young Brit was dealing with the settings of his F2 single-seater for the Jeddah circuit.
The next morning came a shocking message from Ferrari: “Carlos has health problems, we are calling you to the Formula 1 team!”
That Carlos meant Sainz junior, who was affected by acute appendicitis. Bearman had only one training session to try out the Ferrari SF-24 single seater.
He was just a step away from making it to the top ten in qualifying. But even so, eleventh place on the starting grid was a very decent result for a rookie.
However, what he demonstrated during the Saturday Grand Prix itself was like a small miracle. He avoided schoolboy mistakes and won seventh place.
“It was a mega result. This was not Barcelona, but Jeddah, where danger lurks at every corner,” said Ferrari boss Fredéric Vasseur.
“He ran very well in the third practice, he continued step by step. In qualifying he missed the third part by a few hundredths. I was a bit nervous before the start of the race. In F1 you have to master so many things, such as the starting procedure, the pit stop or the steering wheel. It was not that simple,” Vasseur praised his newcomer.
What’s more, in the final laps the driver of the red car from Maranello held off Lando Norris in the McLaren and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, who put on fresh soft tires at the end of the Grand Prix. Even so, the British duo could not even catch up with their compatriot, let alone overtake them.
“He was even able to push in the last lap to keep Lando and Lewis behind him. He wasn’t conservative and didn’t make a mistake at this stage,” praised Vasseur.
“I thought I couldn’t resist their pressure,” admitted Bearman at the finish, who became the first Briton in Ferrari since 1990 and also the Scuderia’s youngest driver in the history of the formula.
To top it all off, a quartet of Britons scored points for the first time since the 1968 French Grand Prix. In addition to Bearman, Norris and Hamilton, it was also George Russel in the second Mercedes. Riders from the Islands took sixth to ninth place in a row.
Bearman continued the tradition of successful rookie debuts in F1. As the fourth competitor in a row, he managed to reach the points position.
However, his seventh position is better than what Juki Cunoda, Chou Kuan-yü and Nyck de Vries showed in front of him in their first start. The last time both new Haas drivers finished without points on their debut was in the Bahrain Grand Prix three years ago.
Vresults in Formula 1 debut:
| Rider | team | race | result |
| Nikita Mazepin | Haas | Bahrain WC 2021 | didn’t finish |
| Mick Schumacher | Haas | Bahrain WC 2021 | 16. |
| Juki Cunoda | AlphaTauri | Bahrain WC 2021 | 9. |
| Chou Kuan-yu | Alfa Romeo | Bahrain WC 2021 | 10. |
| Nyck de Vries | Williams | WC Italy 2022 | 9. |
| Oliver Bearman | Ferrari | WC Saudi Arabia 2024 | 7. |
Whether Bearman will continue behind the wheel of Ferrari is uncertain. It all depends on how quickly Sainz recovers. Vasseur believes that the Spaniard will be ready already on March 24, when the Australian Grand Prix takes place.
“I don’t know what else I can do because I think I won’t be in Formula 1 until the end of the year. My aim was to put in a great performance this weekend. I think I did a decent job. Now I can just keep trying in F2 and keep fingers crossed,” said the British hopeful after the Saudi Arabian WC.