Ferrari has a brand new British driver, and it isn’t Lewis Hamilton.
Carlos Sainz Jr. was dominated out of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix with appendicitis that required surgical procedure on Friday and Ferrari handed 18-year-old Oliver Bearman his Formulation 1 debut hours earlier than qualifying. He positioned eleventh.
“Carlos is out of surgical procedure. The whole lot went properly and he’s now resting on the hospital. We’re sending him our full assist for a fast restoration,” Ferrari mentioned Friday.
The workforce promoted Bearman, its British reserve driver who often competes in Formulation 2, for the remainder of the race weekend beginning with Friday’s third observe.
Bearman was tenth quickest in observe and appeared equally at dwelling in qualifying later within the day. Small errors meant he missed out on the third and last session for the highest 10 locations by lower than a tenth of a second. Bearman apologized to Ferrari over the radio however acquired heat reward from his new teammate Charles Leclerc.
“He has executed an unimaginable job,” Leclerc mentioned. “I can not think about how particular it’s for him to get the decision this morning and to leap right into a Ferrari on such a racetrack. I hope we are able to rating good factors, in order that he retains these reminiscences in his thoughts perpetually.”
Bearman is about to turn out to be the third youngest driver to start out an F1 race, behind solely Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll, who had been 17 and 18, respectively, once they made their debuts.
Beginning Saturday’s grand prix would make Bearman the youngest driver to race for Ferrari, breaking a document set in 1961 by Ricardo Rodríguez of Mexico, who was 19 on the Italian GP.
Ferrari can have its first full-time British F1 driver this century when seven-time champion Hamilton replaces Sainz for the 2025 season.
Bearman beforehand drove two observe periods in Mexico and Abu Dhabi final yr as a take a look at driver for the Haas workforce. He certified on pole place in F2 this weekend however will take no additional half in that occasion.
The distinction in velocity between the 2 sequence was made clear Friday. F1 champion Max Verstappen’s lap for pole was almost 15 seconds quicker than Bearman’s F2 pole lap the day earlier than.
Sainz drove in each of Thursday’s practices in Saudi Arabia, having the sixth and seventh quickest instances, however mentioned he felt unwell and that it was affecting his driving.
“Clearly, a really tough day after feeling sick, the final 24 hours have been robust and tough for me,” Sainz mentioned Thursday. “As we speak it was all about making an attempt to get myself on observe and be taught as a lot as attainable from the automobile with out pushing an excessive amount of the boundaries as I used to be nonetheless a bit on the not-ideal facet.”
Sainz’s subsequent alternative to return to F1 is on March 24 on the Australian GP in Melbourne.
“Get properly quickly,” Williams driver Alex Albon wrote to Sainz on X, previously Twitter. “I do know an excellent surgeon in the event you want.”
Albon missed the Italian GP in 2022 with appendicitis, giving substitute Nyck de Vries an F1 debut, and returned on the subsequent race in Singapore.
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