Bearman credits support from Sainz and Vettel with boosting his F1 debut

Ollie Bearman’s favorite pre-race message ahead of his unexpected debut at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix came from Sebastian Vettel, while he also praised the support of Carlos Sainz from the Ferrari garage. The 18-year-old replaced Sainz — who was sidelined by appendicitis — from FP3 onwards in Jeddah, just missing out on a spot in Q3 and then climbing to seventh place to score points on debut. Bearman says he’s always been a Vettel fan so was thrilled to get a message from the former Ferrari driver and four-time world champion, among multiple shows of support. “I did get a lot of congratulations and good luck messages before the race,” Bearman said. “My favorite one was from Sebastian Vettel — I’m a huge fan of his since the early days. Even up until he retired I was always rooting for Seb, so to get a message from him was really special. To know that he was kind of watching me put on a bit of pressure, but it was a nice pressure. “As well from Stefano Domenicali — he sent me a really nice message after the race which I was really happy with. And I got a hug from Lewis after the race, that was nice that he kind of recognized the race for me — that was a proud moment for myself.” Given the short time to prepare, Bearman says Charles Leclerc’s advice on his first day in the car was particularly helpful, while also revealing how Sainz returned to the track on race day to provide support from the garage. “It was great to work with F1 drivers. I wouldn’t consider myself an F1 driver despite having done a race — I’m still in F2 — and it’s great to see the level that they perform at, that they work at. It’s something that I strive to be able to do. “To get the tips from Charles during the weekend, especially in qualifying, but even before the race, and Carlos during the race — he was pretty much guiding me through it through what he saw in the data and was feeding it to my engineer. It was fantastic, and it really helped me speed up the learning process and get up to speed a lot quicker because of them. So it was amazing.” Despite the feedback from such experienced drivers, there were still aspects of the race weekend that Bearman had not been prepared for, particularly the intensity of a Formula 1 event compared to Formula 2. “I think the thing that surprised me most about an F1 weekend was the amount of admin that goes on. There is so much media activity, so much more technical stuff than we have in F2. For a race at 8pm I was already on the track at lunchtime to prepare, so the days are very, very long, full of hard work. That was a surprise, but a happy one. “I think going through all the procedures was easier than I expected, mainly because we practice them so many times on the simulator — which is a huge testament to the simulator at Ferrari, because I was able to jump straight in the car, all of the switch changes that they asked me to do I was able to do quite easily. That shows that the hard work has been paying off back in the factory. “The difficult side was of course the physical side. I expected it to be tough, because already in F2 it was a physical track, so jumping up to F1 I was a bit scared. I just about managed to do it, but it was a big challenge.”