Ollie Bearman made his F1 debut at the 2024 Saudi Arabian GP, stepping in for Carlos Sainz, who was sidelined with appendicitis. With just one day’s notice, he suited up for Ferrari and had a solid weekend, though it came at the cost of enduring two days of agonizing pain.
On the recent episode of the F1: Beyond the Grid podcast, Bearman revealed the physical struggle of moving away from F2 and getting into an F1 car for the first time.
“I didn’t have a neck for like two days after the race, I couldn’t use it. I was in a cask basically,” he said. “The neck was completely destroyed. I had a headache from how hard I was hitting the headrest in the race.”
Q1 CLASSIFICATION
Ollie Bearman is comfortably through to Q2! #F1 #SaudiArabianGP pic.twitter.com/0W6zOaXyYl
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 8, 2024
Bearman was shocked by the significant step up from F2 to F1. He explained how everything in F1 is tightly packaged and how the heat inside the car was overwhelming. Another challenge was the heat at Jeddah, which is arguably one of the toughest races on the calendar due to its scorching temperatures.
Despite the challenges, Bearman’s neck movement didn’t impact his lap times. He revealed that Ferrari added special pads to the headrest to keep his head straight through the corners. Still, the Briton faced a few close calls during the weekend.
Bearman recalls brushing the barriers in Jeddah
Bearman had just a single practice session to get accustomed to the F1 car before diving into the critical sessions of the race weekend. As he pushed the car to its limits, he brushed the walls a couple of times. His dad was in the Ferrari garage, and his reaction to seeing Bearman graze the barrier quickly went viral.
Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur was equally distressed by Bearman brushing the barriers on his first outing. He urged the debutant not to push the limits too quickly and to focus on bringing the car home in one piece.
Journalist Tom Clarkson asked what Vasseur said to Bearman after the race, to which he replied, “Before the race, because I brushed the barrier in qualifying, he told me, ‘Can’t do that anymore’. After the race of course he was happy. We didn’t catch up massively but I knew he would be happy because I had a clean race.”
Bearman finished P7, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and his performance caught the eye of Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu and the Briton was announced as the driver to pair alongside Esteban Ocon for the Kannapolis-based outfit.
