With veteran Kevin Magnussen dealing with an illness at the São Paolo Grand Prix, Haas has tabbed 19-year-old Ollie Bearman to race for the team for the remainder of the Formula One weekend.
Haas confirmed the news after sprint qualifying on Friday afternoon, in which Bearman qualified 10th in Magnussen’s car. Earlier, Haas had announced Magnussen would miss FP1 and sprint qualifying on Friday after reporting feeling sick, and the team would re-evaluate his status for the rest of the weekend after the sessions.
The Sprint race is on Saturday at 10 a.m. ET, followed by grand prix qualifying at 2 p.m. ET.
Now, Bearman will finish the weekend for Haas and complete his third full grand prix weekend of the year. Bearman, a member of Ferrari’s driver academy, is already set to drive full-time for Haas in 2025, having signed with the team in July. The British driver will partner with Esteban Ocon, who will join Haas next season from Alpine.
Bearman has already stepped in for Magnussen once this season at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in September, when Magnussen served a one-race ban for exceeding 12 penalty points within a 12 month period. Bearman started and finished that race in 10th.
This isn’t even the first time in 2024 that Bearman has replaced a sick driver. Ferrari picked him to replace Carlos Sainz when the Spaniard had an emergency appendectomy during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend in March. Bearman drew accolades for his stand-in performance, in which he picked up six points and went from a P10 start to a P7 finish.
Bearman was always destined to at least race in the sprint after qualifying for it on Friday — the rules state that only the driver who qualifies the car for a sprint (or a grand prix) can take part, meaning he would not be able to hand it back over to Magnussen if the Dane were to regain fitness in time.
But as Magnussen could not recover, Bearman will suit up for grand prix qualifying and Sunday’s race. This will leave Magnussen with three races left in his F1 career when he returns for the next race in Las Vegas on Nov. 23 — Haas did not renew his contract for 2025, and the Dane seems unlikely to inherit a seat at Sauber, the last team on the grid with an open spot next season.
Magnussen isn’t the only driver dealing with illness this weekend. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso missed media appearances on Thursday due to feeling unwell. He was back driving on Friday, however.
Bearman’s successful appearances this season have created a quirk in the F1 standings. For the longest time, Bearman had more points (seven) than a handful of drivers who have raced all season in F1. He still has more points than drivers with more races run this season, like Ocon, former Williams driver Logan Sargeant (and Sargeant’s mid-season replacement, Franco Colapinto) and Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas.
GO DEEPER
Britain’s next great F1 driver? Ollie Bearman joins the grid
Top photo: Clive Mason/Getty Images
