After missing out on the Saudi Arabian GP owing to an urgent appendicitis surgery, Carlos Sainz is back in the paddock to go racing at the 2024 Australian GP. The #55 driver has expressed his eagerness to get back into the action, however, given that he’s only had 12 days to recover from his surgery, super-sub Oliver Bearman is ready on the sidelines to take over if at all Sainz is not yet up to the mark.
Speaking to the media on the eve of the Grand Prix weekend, Sainz said as quoted on F1’s Weekend Warm Up, “I feel ready. I’ve done as much as possible to recover.” The Spaniard revealed that he was happy with the progress he’s made since the surgery. “It’s time to jump in the car and see how I feel,” concluded the 29-year-old.
Sainz was rushed in for surgery on the Saturday of the race weekend at Jeddah. However, just hours after the ordeal, he was back in the paddock to witness his team’s Grand Prix the next day. It was a strong statement by the Spaniard who is also on the lookout for a top race seat in 2025.
F1 drivers are trained to be at the peak of physical fitness and performance. But a surgery like his takes a drastic toll on the body. With F1 cars pulling massive amounts of G-forces on the driver, Sainz will need some time to get back into the rhythm and give his 100% in the SF-24.
Should Ferrari bench Carlos Sainz for the 2024 Australian GP?
While Sainz’s resilience is commendable, many experts and paddock insiders feel that he isn’t quite ready to jump back into the car yet. Ex-F1 team owner, Eddie Jordan even suggested the team to stick with Oliver Bearman for one more race as expecting Sainz to be firing on all cylinders from day 1 would be an unrealistic expectation.
Jordan explained on the Formula for Success podcast that it would be difficult for the #55 driver to get into race trim from the get-go. With the majority of the G-forces during turn-in projected towards the lower abdomen of a driver, Sainz’s appendicitis surgery would take a toll on how comfortable he feels in the car during high-load situations.
Bearman on the other hand would be better prepared to tackle the Albert Park street circuit than Sainz. After an entire Grand Prix distance under his belt, the 18-year-old British racing sensation has more preparation to go into the Australian GP than he had with the last race where his solitary FP3 session was also cut short after Guanyu Zhou’s shunt.
That being said, Bearman himself would be apprehensive about the whole affair. Yet to score a single point in his F2 season, the Briton is eager to get back to racing the feeder series full-time to be able to impress the F1 teams to offer him a full-time role instead in 2025.
