Oliver bearman: Kevin Magnussen, an experienced driver, fell ill at the São Paulo Grand Prix. Haas has therefore asked 19-year-old Ollie Bearman to drive for the team for the rest of the Formula 1 weekend.
In sprint qualifying on Friday afternoon, Bearman finished tenth in Magnussen’s car. Haas said. Previously, Haas had said that Magnussen would miss FP1 and sprint qualifying on Friday because he was ill and that the team would reassess his situation for the rest of the weekend after practise.
Now Bearman will finish the weekend for Haas. It is his third Grand Prix weekend this year and the second weekend in a row that he has completed all sessions. The sprint race starts on Saturday at 10.00 am ET. Qualifying for the Grand Prix will begin at 2:00 p.m. ET and the Grand Prix will start at 12:00 p.m. ET on Sunday.
Bearman, who is in the Ferrari driver school, has already signed to drive full-time for Haas in 2025. He joined the team in July. Esteban Ocon, who is leaving Alpine to drive for Haas next season, will team up with the Briton.
In September, at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Bearman stood in for Magnussen while he served a one-race ban for receiving too many penalty points in 12 months. Bearman finished 10th at the beginning and end of the race.
Nevertheless, this is not the first time that Bearman has filled in for an ill rider in 2024. In March, during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz had to undergo an emergency appendectomy. Ferrari picked him to fill in for him. Bearman worked hard and scored six points, moving him up from tenth to seventh place.
After making the cut for the sprint on Friday, it was clear that Bearman would at least compete in this race. According to the regulations, the car can only be driven by the driver who qualified it for a sprint (or a grand prix), so he could not hand it back to Magnussen if the Dane got fit in time.
But Magnussen was unable to improve, so Bearman will drive in qualifying for the Grand Prix and the race on Sunday. The next race for Magnussen is in Las Vegas on 23 November. He still has three races left in his F1 career because Haas has not renewed his contract for 2025. The Dane is unlikely to get a seat at Sauber next season, the only team on the grid with a free seat.
This weekend, Magnussen is not the only driver who is ill. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso did not take part in media events on Thursday because he was ill. However, he drove again on Friday.
The F1 standings aren’t quite right because Bearman has been racing well this season. Most of the time, Bearman has had more points (seven) than some F1 drivers who have raced all season. He still has more points than drivers who have driven more races than him this season, such as Ocon, Logan Sargeant (who used to drive for Williams) and Franco Colapinto, who replaced Sargeant in the middle of the season, as well as Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas from Sauber.
