British teenager Oliver Bearman will replace Carlos Sainz at Ferrari for this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after the Spaniard underwent successful surgery for appendicitis on saturday.
Sainz missed his media duties on Wednesday through illness before participating in the two Thursday’s practice sessions in Jeddah, but Ferrari announced ahead of Friday’s final practice and qualifying that the Spaniard had been diagnosed with appendicitis.
Bearman, 18, who has been part of the Ferrari Driver Academy since 2021, made a solid debut for the Italian team by taking 10th in the session ahead of qualifying.
He won the 2021 Italian and ADAC (German) F4 titles.
Bearman finished third in his rookie F3 campaign in 2022 behind the highly rated duo of Victor Martins and Zane Maloney.
The Briton won four F2 races in his maiden season in 2023 on his way to sixth in the championship.
He made his F1 weekend debut in first practice at the 2023 Mexico City GP and he season-ending Abu Dhabi GP.
Bearman is the team-mate of exciting Mercedes junior Kimi Antonelli in F2 this year at Prema.
Ferrari later released in a statement that Carlos was out of surgery and it went well.
“Carlos is out of surgery,” said Ferrari in a statement released after Bearman had driven in final practice.
Bearman, who featured in practice for Haas in Mexico and Abu Dhabi last season, had taken pole position on Thursday’s F2 qualifying session, but will not feature in the feeder series’ races over the remainder of the weekend.
The Prema driver finished sixth in his debut F2 campaign in 2023, winning three feature races and one sprint race.
Berman used the number 38 on his car as he became the 14th British driver to race for Ferrari in F1 and the first since Eddie Irvine left the team in 2000.
The Spaniard, who has yet to secure a seat for 2025, took an impressive third-placed podium finish at last weekend’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
Sainz is the second F1 driver in the space of two years to miss a race with appendicitis, following Williams driver Alex Albon being ruled out of the 2022 Italian Grand Prix with the same illness.
