Scuderia Ferrari has officially announced that the Spaniard will skip the Saudi Arabian GP due to appendicitis, requiring surgery. Resurrected from the F2 paddock, reserve driver Oliver Bearman, a young talent from the Ferrari Driver Academy, will make his surprise debut on the SF-24. Ollie had previously conducted a test with the F1-75 in Barcelona.
Carlos Sainz will not participate in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix; his car will be entrusted to Oliver Bearman (called up urgently from the Formula 2 paddock) for the remainder of the weekend.
Carlos Sainz had arrived in Jeddah’s paddock on Wednesday with gastrointestinal issues. “I’m not in top form,” Carlos had commented, and in the afternoon, Ferrari announced he would skip the usual press conference to return to the hotel. Yesterday morning, the first alarm, with his presence on the track confirmed only an hour before the FP1 session.
“It’s been a very tough day,” Carlos Sainz explained at the end of the FP2 session yesterday. “The last 24 hours have been challenging for me. I hope to feel better tomorrow, although I probably won’t be in 100% shape.”
However, the situation did not improve overnight, with the diagnosis revealing an appendicitis problem that triggered high fever. This sets the stage for Oliver Bearman’s Formula 1 debut. At eighteen years old, from London, ‘Ollie’ joined the Ferrari Driver Academy at the end of the 2021 season, debuting in Formula 3 (third overall) before spending last year in Formula 2.
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In addition to his renewed Formula 2 program with the Prema team this season (this morning, he participated in the free practice session in Jeddah, concluding with the fourth-fastest time), Ferrari has included him in the Formula 1 ‘reserve driver’ group, alternating roles with Antonio Giovinazzi and Robert Shwartzman.
This weekend, Oliver Bearman is ‘on duty,’ urgently summoned from the nearby Formula 2 paddock. At the end of January, ‘Ollie’ tested the F1-75 during Pirelli tests at the Barcelona circuit, providing him with a first and valuable taste of a ground-effect car.
Yesterday, Oliver Bearman dominated the F2 qualifying session, securing the pole position that would have granted him a starting position at the front of the grid for the Feature Race scheduled for tomorrow, a race he will now watch as a spectator.
