Haas has confirmed Oliver Bearman will step in for the suspended Kevin Magnussen for the next Formula 1 round in Azerbaijan.
The FIA has suspended Magnussen’s superlicence for the upcoming round after received his 12th penalty point this year at the Italian Grand Prix. Any driver who collects 12 points in less than 12 months receives an automatic one-race ban.Following a mid-race clash with Pierre Gasly at Monza, Magnussen was handed two penalty points after the stewards deemed him responsible for causing a collision. He becomes the first ever F1 driver to be forced to miss a round due to reaching the 12 penalty point threshold.
As a result, Haas have announced that Bearman will replace Magnussen for the upcoming race weekend in Baku. The Ferrari junior is due to join the team as one of their two race drivers for 2025, alongside incoming team mate Esteban Ocon.
Bearman, who races in Formula 2 with Prema, made his grand prix debut earlier this season. He was called up by Ferrari during the second round in Jeddah when Carlos Sainz Jnr was hospitalised with a sudden bout of appendicitis. Despite just a single hour of practice in the car, Bearman qualified 11th on the grid and scored points by finishing seventh.
The 18-year-old has driven the 2024 Haas VF-24 on several occasions this year. He participated in Friday practice sessions in the car at Imola, Barcelona, Silverstone and the Hungaroring. Bearman also had two Friday practice outings with the team in 2023 and is due to complete more Friday practice runs before the end of this year.
“He’s already shown great promise in his FP1 outings and post-season test, and he performed very well when he drove for Scuderia Ferrari in Saudi Arabia, picking up points in the process,” said Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu. “This is another excellent opportunity for both Ollie and the team to work together, this time throughout an entire race weekend, and he couldn’t ask for better team mate than Nico to provide him with a reference.”
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As a result of his call-up by Haas, Bearman will not compete in the Formula 2 races over the Baku weekend. Prema have not yet confirmed who will fill Bearman’s empty seat alongside team mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who will also graduate to F1 next year.
Bearman sits 14th in the F2 championship standings with three rounds remaining with two race victories this season. He won the sprint race at Monza, the most recent round of the championship.
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Jere (@jerejj)
6th September 2024, 10:34
Haas should’ve confirmed him on race day already since only he was ever going to substitute in any case, given his shared reserve driver status as well as being the only person in the world other than Hulkenberg & Magnussen with any driving experience in the VF24.
Dex
6th September 2024, 11:47
Why? Bearman knew. That’s what matters, not some media headline. I don’t see how that matters to us outsiders, especially since we all knew anyway.
I don’t concern myself with ordinary technicalities like that, as a racing fan.
I rather think about Bearman’s awful F2 season, and how it translates to his F1 form, if it does.
Jere (@jerejj)
6th September 2024, 16:41
Dex Yes, I also by default don’t concern myself with clear-cut formalities, but usually the annoying thing with not confirming something obvious shortly afterwards is that people start making up stuff by being unrealistic with their expectations or assumptions & other unfounded speculation.
Yaru (@yaru)
6th September 2024, 15:30
I was hoping Fittipaldi would get it (as the other Haas reserve driver) because Bearman has already been confirmed for next year and maybe he can get more time in an F1 car.
But I guess it’s a competitive race and someone that has driven VF-24 would make more sense. In addition to more preparedness for next season, which would also benefit Haas. So this is the most logical choice.
chimaera2003 (@chimaera2003)
6th September 2024, 19:45
@yaru I reckon also having a good record at Baku helps. He did the double there last year in F2 so knows his way around the place. Could be the difference if points become a possibility.
Nick T.
6th September 2024, 20:45
But the car is good enough to score points. You can’t risk that just to give a junior driver a test driver especially when both of next year’s drivers are just beginning multi-year contracts.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
6th September 2024, 10:59
Obviously I’m very happy for Ollie. But of all the drivers to get banned, Kmags seat was always going to be given to Bearman. Just in a way of seeing these things as an opportunity and considering we’ll see him in a Haas next year anyway. What like about substitutions is the ones who come in and it might be their only opportunity. If the same had happened to a Red Bull / RB driver we may have seen Hadjar in a car? Who would have to feel poorly for Pourchaire to end up in a race?
It might work in Bearmans favour when down the line someone questions his last season in the feeder series and the he only finished ‘x’, now people can point out he missed a round.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
6th September 2024, 13:12
…or two!
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
6th September 2024, 13:29
@bullfrog Ha! Of course
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
6th September 2024, 23:28
“IF” they question it …. yes. But most won’t and will merely note that he he did not win, or that he finished in xth place.
In most cases drivers are remembered when they have won championships with limited exceptions such as Sir Stirling Moss. Or when they have shown potential but were tragically killed. I get that there are a few super fans that appreciatte the skills of past non championship winning drivers, but it is likely the minority.
StephenH
6th September 2024, 11:53
This will be real test for Bearman. Yes, his last race was also on a street circuit, but Jeddah is fast and flowing. With Baku it’s a lot narrower and more stop-start, plus he’s not in a front running car this time, as well as there now being a little more expectation of him after how well he performed in Saudi Arabia.
That said, I have a feeling he’ll beat Hulk.
MichaelN
6th September 2024, 15:30
It’s a pretty interesting opportunity for him to have such a different experience car-wise in one season.
So long as he keeps it clean, it’ll be a good weekend for him.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
6th September 2024, 23:30
Interesting. Could happen of course, and wouldn’t necessarily be a huge upset if he did, but I’m thinking not.
PacificPR (@streydt)
6th September 2024, 11:57
Just imagine a crazy race – like we had several years back – and Bearman taking the first podium for Haas instead of Hulkenberg..
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
6th September 2024, 15:09
Yes, that would be fun\insane, but realistically this year there’s 4 teams monopolising the top 8, too much would have to happen for a haas to get a podium, example back when stroll got a podium in a force india, there were ferrari, red bull and merc as teams clearly above others, and verstappen had a technical problem, raikkonen I think hit bottas early on and because of that damage eventually retired, hamilton had that headrest issue and because of the SC bunching up the field not long before he fell back more than otherwise when doing that extra stop, and same goes for vettel’s stop and go after purposefully hitting hamilton.
That left only ricciardo, who won from very far back, probably 17th or so, and bottas, to contend for the podium, stroll was actually 2nd at the last turn, but bottas overtook him on the finish straight.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
6th September 2024, 15:09
Yes, that would be fun\insane, but realistically this year there’s 4 teams monopolising the top 8, too much would have to happen for a haas to get a podium, example back when stroll got a podium in a force india, there were ferrari, red bull and merc as teams clearly above others, and verstappen had a technical problem, raikkonen I think hit bottas early on and because of that damage eventually retired, hamilton had that headrest issue and because of the SC bunching up the field not long before he fell back more than otherwise when doing that extra stop, and same goes for vettel’s stop and go after purposefully hitting hamilton.
That left only ricciardo, who won from very far back, probably 17th or so, and bottas, to contend for the podium, stroll was actually 2nd at the last turn, but bottas overtook him on the finish straight.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
6th September 2024, 15:09
Would be nice, since double comments can happen accidentally, if there was an edit or delete own comments button.
Nick T.
6th September 2024, 23:49
Imagine if Nico became our first German race führer in many years at Baku after big incidents at T1 and T2. Imagine if brief and former F1 driver Helmuf Marko subbed for Perez at Baku after Checo got eliminated in Q3 for the 6th time this season.
Anyway, to see how bad McLaren an idea running a two-stop race at Monza was was let alone doing it with Piastri, Magnussen was lapping faster than Leclerc in some of the final laps and was still classified 10th despite having to pass a number of cars and getting a 10-second penalty. CL, CS, AA and KM, all who out performed expectations, all ran a one-stop.
GeeMac (@geemac)
6th September 2024, 12:10
This is a nice wee audition for Bearman, it will let him get a chance to properly work with the team and they will see what he’s like under real pressure. It’ll be interesting to see how he performs in a car which is a borderline points scorer rather than one which is nailed on for points.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
6th September 2024, 15:01
Indeed, I was also thinking it’d be an interesting experiment, he will really notice the difference between the performance of the cars, not scoring points will not be a problem here, in fact it would be an achievement.