Formula 1's newest star Oliver Bearman shone in Saturday night's Saudi Arabian GrandPrix at Jeddah Corniche Circuit, after successfully finishing in the points in his debut for Ferrari sitting in for the unwell Carlos Sainz.
Sainz had been diagnosed with appendicitis and underwent surgery the previous day, ruling him out of taking part in this weekend's race. Bearman had just three hours notice before he was in the car for final practice and qualifying.
Starting from 11th place on the grid, Bearman followed team boss Frederic Vasseur's advice not to be a hero and played it cool in the opening laps, but soon found himself moving forward into the points.
Impressively mature moves on Yuki Tsunoda and Nico Hulkenberg put the 18-year-old up to seventh place, but he had his work cut out for him staying ahead of Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton to the finish to the chequered flag.
After the race, Hamilton was first to congratulate Bearman on his debut performance, and fans awarded him the official F1 Driver of the Day title for his efforts.
"Not bad I think," he said over the team radio on the way back to pit lane. "I would have liked to go a bit longer on that soft at the start because it felt good. The car was mega today, so thank you, I really enjoyed it.
"I think I put in a good showing for myself, which is the main thing, right?” Bearman subsequently said in something of an understatement when interviewed by the media in the paddock after the end of the race.
“It’s difficult circumstances," he continued. "Not a lot of laps on track. But I think I maximised everything today.
“I lost a lot of time trying to overtake Hulkenberg, who used his experience to keep me back for a few more laps than he should have, so that’s my bad. But no, it was a good race.
"I felt like I was a bit quicker than [Fernando] Alonso and [George] Russell in front, but not enough to catch them as the gap was pretty big," he said. "I was shocked at how fast we were pushing, getting quicker every lap.
"Physically it was a really difficult race," he admitted. "Especially in the end, when I had the two guys on softs bearing down on me, I had to basically push flat out.
"I couldn’t relax, I was always in my mirrors pushing flat out. But it was a really exciting and fun race," he said. "It required a lot of precision with the walls close like this, but I loved every moment.
"It was a mentally difficult race as expected, and physically I was struggling too, but great fun out there," adding that he felt "destroyed" after 50 laps of the second-longest circuit on this year's F1 calendar.
“I think especially my lower back and my neck is hurting. These seats take a bit of fine-tuning, and as this is the first race we didn’t really have time to focus on that.
“Not the most comfortable but I’m happy that we finished quickly," he said. "It was good motivation to finish the race quicker!”
The question now for the Essex youngster is when he will get a second taste of Formula 1. With Carlos Sainz already back on his feet and in the paddock on Saturday, it's unlikely he will be needed in Australia in a fortnight.
“Carlos is looking well so I am glad he’s having a good recovery. In the end, it’s not my decision to make,” said Bearman. “If he feels good - and I hope he does - he'll be in the car in Melbourne.
"At the end [of the day] it’s his car, it’s his championship. I hope the best for him," he added, looking forward to getting back to his day job competing in the Formula 2 support series.
"It’s great to have this opportunity in F1 but my main focus this year is F2," he said. "F2 will be a bit less complicated now. I don’t have to worry about this battery strategy or anything like that.
“I think F2 is fantastic training, because I felt really prepared. I think you saw from my first lap in final practice that I was straight on the pace, so it's testament to the feeder series for how well they prepare drivers for F1."
Asked whether he felt ready to repeat his super-sub duties should another opportunity arise, Bearman simply shrugged and smiled: “You tell me. Did I do enough?", adding: "I hope I did a good job interview today."
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