Carlos Sainz had to undergo surgery just one day before the Saudi Arabian GP, which is why Ferrari got Oliver Bearman in as a replacement. The Briton, who had a strong weekend in Jeddah, now looked back at his memorable experience and highlighted the role Sainz played in making sure things went well for him.
Per Berman, Sainz was pulling the strings on his side of the garage. On the High-Performance podcast, Bearman said, “He [Sainz] was telling them [the team] what to tell me basically.”
Much to the surprise of Bearman and everyone on the track, Sainz was trackside during the then 18-year-old’s debut. Sainz was visibly hurting but took slow and measured steps to get into the Ferrari garage.
Ollie Bearman on how Carlos supported him during his F1 debut:
“He was telling them (the engineers) what to tell me basically. So yeah, that was pretty nice.”
“It was great to see that he came back to the circuit the next day. He’d been through a lot so that was really cool.” pic.twitter.com/zhKwMNKB1O
— yoyo (@williamssainz) August 13, 2024
“It was great to see that he came back to the circuit the next day,” Bearman added. “He’d been through a lot, so that was really cool.”
Bearman also spoke about Sainz’s teammate Charles Leclerc, who was his partner for the day. The Monegasque understood how nervous Bearman was, which is why he sat with the young Briton ahead of the Grand Prix to give him some much-needed advice.
Thankfully for Bearman, everything went perfectly that evening in Jeddah. He finished P7 – ahead of both Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris – despite starting P11, and immediately caught Haas’ attention. The Kannapolis-based team signed him up for 2025, a move that was made official last month.
