Bearman set to take over Hulkenberg's car in opening Barcelona practice
Ferrari and Haas reserve driver Oliver Bearman is looking forward to an action-packed weekend in Barcelona as he will drive for the American team in the opening practice session alongside his Formula 2 commitments.
Ferrari junior driver Oliver Bearman will return to the VF-24 for the second of his six planned FP1 outings in 2024. The British driver currently competes in the FIA Formula 2 Championship while he also fulfils the role of reserve driver for Haas and the Ferrari which means that he would step in if one of the race drivers of the American or the Italian squads is unable to race.
Bearman made his grand prix debut at this year's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix where he replaced Carlos Sainz after the Spaniard had been diagnosed with appendicitis that had required surgery.
Having only driven the SF-24 in one sole practice session, the 18-year-old driver displayed a brilliant performance in qualifying to secure P11 for the start of the race, and he went on to finish seventh in his debut grand prix, beating the likes of Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton.
Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu has confirmed that Bearman will get behind the wheel of the VF-24, taking over Nico Hulkenberg's car in the opening practice session at the Spanish Grand Prix.
"We have Bearman joining us again for FP1, this time in place of Nico, so he can continue from where he left off in Imola," added Komatsu.
Expanding on the forthcoming round in Barcelona, Komatsu added: “Spain is the first circuit since we introduced our upgrades which has proper high-speed corners, so I’m really looking forward to assessing our update at that circuit and see what it’s like.
"A triple-header is always pretty tough, thankfully a lot of our team is UK-based so it helps that the last race of this triple is in the UK, but it is still very hard.
"It’s getting to that point of the season where everybody’s feeling it, so it’s very important that we look after ourselves to be able to perform at our best, to be efficient and focused, especially on the back of two events where our trackside operations weren’t the best. We can’t let that happen, so we need to look at ourselves and see how we can operate at our best.”
