Haas has just confirmed that their future 2025 driver Oliver Bearman will drive instead of banned Kevin Magnussen at the Azerbaijan GP.
Baku will be the Britton’s second Formula 1 race, as he had already driven for Ferrari around the streets of Jeddah to replace Carlos Sainz, who had his appendix removed.
Back at the Italian GP, Magnussen reached 12 penalty points on his super license, thus meaning that he will have to miss one race.
The British driver had already proven to be worthy of a Formula 1 seat back in Saudi Arabia when he drove for Ferrari. On that occasion, he qualified in P11, while showing great race craft and overtaking abilities during the race, allowing him to finish in P7.
Now, he has another opportunity to display his talent and also to start getting used to the car he’ll be driving in 2025.
“It’s definitely more of a challenge stepping in to race as a reserve driver, with limited prep-time and so on, but I’m in the fortunate position of having done it earlier in the year with Scuderia Ferrari, so I can at least call on that experience,” said Bearman.
“I’ve also had four FP1 sessions with MoneyGram Haas F1 Team in the VF-24 already this season, so undoubtedly that will also prove to be valuable in tackling the full race weekend in Baku. The team is in good form at the moment and I’ll do my best to be prepared with the time we have available. The aim is to get out there and have a solid weekend in Azerbaijan.”
Team principal Ayao Komatsu also added a few words regarding Bearman, saying that he is excited to have him on board.
“I’m excited that Ollie will be driving the VF-24 alongside Nico in Baku. 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.
“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 a better teammate than Nico to provide him with a reference.”