Kevin Magnussen will not return to his car this weekend after missing the first day of running due to illness, Haas have confirmed.
Oliver Bearman, who substituted for the team’s regular driver today, will complete the weekend in his place.
Haas originally announced Bearman would replace Magnussen on Friday. Under F1’s revised rules for this year he also had to remain in Magnussen’s car for the sprint race on Saturday. The team has now announced he will see out the weekend in the car.
Bearman learned he would be driving early on Friday morning when Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu called him.
“Ayao woke me up this morning at like 6:30 with his call, but when I saw his name, I wasn’t so mad,” Bearman told the official F1 channel. “If it was my mum or something, not realising the time difference, I would have been a bit more angry.
“But of course I have to give my best to Kevin because I know he’s feeling bad and he has had a lot of success on this track – he did pole here.”
Bearman qualified 10th on the grid for tomorrow’s sprint race, ahead of the team’s regular driver Nico Hulkenberg. However he said a mistake on his final run in SQ3 cost him a better starting position, having been seventh in the preceding session.
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“The car was feeling really good today,” he said. “From the first lap I did in [first practice], I had a great feeling.
“So I’m happy to be in SQ3 and finally make it to the third stage of a qualifying session. But I just did a little mistake inside in sector one, which lost me a lot of time there. The rest of the lap was really, really good, so I’m a bit disappointed.”
Hulkenberg, who qualified 12th, said he lacked confidence in his tyres on his second run in SQ2
“This session was difficult,” he said. “It’s a bit of a continuation from last week with a struggle for me of finding the rhythm and harmony in the car.
“I was actually very happy with my lap, but I didn’t have anything else to find. So it’s strange. We need to investigate more what’s going on because I just didn’t feel the love from the new tyre and didn’t feel like I had the grip.”
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