Oliver Bearman revealed his panic-stricken reaction when Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur told him he would substitute for Carlos Sainz Jnr at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix earlier this year.
The Formula 2 driver made his Formula 1 debut when he was called up by Ferrari after Sainz went down with appendicitis in Jeddah. Bearman received the news after the first day of practice, meaning he had only an hour to practice before qualifying.
The news didn’t come as a complete shock to him. “I knew that Carlos was not feeling great but I continued focusing on Formula 2 and watching [free practice] like I normally would,” Bearman told High Performance. “I spoke briefly with his trainer because he was my trainer last year, more out of care for Carlos because Jeddah is a really difficult track and very physical on the body.”
After Ferrari learned Sainz had to undergo surgery and would not be able to race, Vasseur called Bearman’s manager Chris Harfield.
“It was qualifying day, sitting with Chris and the rest of my little personal team,” said Bearman. “I saw the call on Chris’s phone from Fred Vasseur.
“Normally on a race weekend it doesn’t really spell good news when Fred calls. I knew he wasn’t going to call me to say ‘good luck’ for the [F2] race. I could see Chris’s face when he picked up the phone and it was a specific facial expression.”
Bearman said Vasseur was startled by his enthusiastic reaction. “I put two and two together. I knew the Carlos wasn’t feeling great and I could feel a bit of excitement.
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“Chris’s phone wasn’t working correctly, so I called Fred afterwards, and he broke the news to me. I think I panicked a bit because he was telling me to calm down and just to head to the track.”
“It was crazy,” Bearman added. “I think he could tell the panic in my voice and how crazy I went. I looked across at my dad, and I think he knew from my face as well.
“We got straight in the car and I was so nervous but I headed into the paddock and the news hadn’t broken yet. I was walking in standard, no one took any notice of me. I was just an F2 driver going in for lunch or something with Ferrari.”
After qualifying 11th, Bearman was relieved to hold his position when the race began, having had few opportunities to practice his starts.
“My spread of clutch drop was between 20 and 60%,” he…
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