Oliver Bearman ‘wasn’t so mad’ at Haas as Kevin Magnussen replacement confirmed

Michelle Foster
Oliver Bearman up close in the Haas

Oliver Bearman is racing for Haas in Brazil

Despite a 6:30 AM wake-up call, Oliver Bearman says he wasn’t mad at Ayao Komatsu given he was calling to let him know he needed to replace Kevin Magnussen at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Although Magnussen attended Thursday’s media day at the Interlagos circuit, the Dane fell ill overnight and wasn’t able to drive the Haas F1 car on Friday.

Oliver Bearman qualified P10 in Sprint qualy

Haas confirmed a few hours before FP1 that Bearman would be in the car for Friday’s running and as that included Sprint qualifying, the rules state he would also need to be in the car for the Sprint.

It meant an earlier than expected start to the Briton’s day.

“Ayao woke me up in the morning at, like, 6:30 with his call,” the Haas reserve driver told the media in Brazil.

“When I saw his name I wasn’t so mad. If it was my mum or something, not realising the time difference, I would have been a bit more angry.

“Of course, I want to give my best to Kevin because I know he’s feeling bad, and he has had a lot of success at the track and he took pole here. Of course, I am very happy to get into an F1 car and it is a pleasure.”

Haas subsequently announced Bearman would remain in the car for the rest of the weekend, qualifying and the Grand Prix included, as Magnussen continues to suffer from illness.

This isn’t the first time Bearman has filled in for Magnussen, doing so at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix when the Dane served a one-race ban having amassed 12 penalty points on his Super Licence in a 12-month rolling period. That brings with it an automatic one-race ban.

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Bearman was one of the standout performers in Sprint qualifying on Friday as he put the VF-24 up into 10th place, two positions ahead of Nico Hulkenberg who is often lauded for his qualifying pace.

However, having made it into SQ3 Bearman made a mistake at Turn 2 on his only flying lap of the session and while he completed the lap, his time was deleted for exceeding track limits.

“I mean, the car was feeling really good all day,” he said of his Friday running. “Honestly, from the first lap I did in FP1 I had a great feeling.

“So, yeah, happy to be in SQ3 and finally make it to the third stage of a qualifying session but I just made a little mistake in sector one which lost me a lot of time.

“The rest of the lap was really, really good so I’m a bit disappointed.”

Bearman made history in Baku when he became the first driver in F1 history to score points for two separate teams in his first two F1 starts. He made his F1 debut at the Saudi Arabian GP when he replaced Carlos Sainz and finished seventh before bringing the Haas home in 10th place in Baku.

Bearman has already been confirmed by Haas for next season where he’ll make up one half of the team’s all-new line-up that includes Esteban Ocon.

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