ALEX KALINAUCKAS
FORMULA 1
An average speed of 155mph, 27 wall-lined corners. In the words of triple world champion Max Verstappen, the Jeddah Corniche Circuit is “super-hard to jump in on”, let alone with no testing in a new car, run by Formula 1’s most storied squad. But that’s the situation in which 18-year-old British Formula 2 star Ollie Bearman shone last weekend in Saudi Arabia.
He had been called up by Ferrari after what was originally thought to be food poisoning for regular driver Carlos Sainz turned out to be appendicitis, with the Spaniard requiring surgery. Just two hours before FP3 for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was due to get under way, while he was on his way into the track expecing to race in F2 after topping qualifying the previous day, Ferrari Driver Academy protege Bearman got the call to replace Sainz.
“I honestly didn’t have time to get nervous or to overthink it, because it was so late that I literally had to focus straight away on trying to get up to speed and catch up the lost time,” he said after qualifying 11th.
Slight errors at Turns 9, 10 and 27 had cost him a Q3 berth on a day when he barely had chance to talk to his temporary team-mate Charles Leclerc, who explained that Bearman had “so much to understand in order to be ready” with Ferrari’s engineers.
The next day, Bearman became Britain’s – and Ferrari’s – youngest ever F1 racer. In the initial stages he held station in the pack. Then, during an early safety car period, he followed Leclerc into the pits. Afterwards, he passed Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu and Nico Hulkenberg, and later leapfrogged compatriots Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton – who both lost out by not pitting under the safety car – when they eventually headed for the pitlane.
Ferrari now informed Bearman of his final challenge: to stay seventh, with Norris and Hamilton well-briefed on who they were chasing. But the Ferrari debutant upped his pace, and Norris’s 6.3s deficit once his McLaren was fitted with soft tyres was only eroded to 3.0s by the flag.
“The car was flying today so that is obviously a big bonus,” Bearman said. “But I think we executed a clean race, no mistakes, and that is exactly what we were looking for. So, I’m happy with my performance. That was my goal, to do a great showing this weekend. I think I did a decent job, so that’s all right. That’s all I
