Oliver Bearman felt physically “destroyed” after his debut F1 race at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, where he finished seventh and scored points. Despite starting from P11 on the grid, the teenager put in a confident performance at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, having stepped in at Ferrari with limited notice due to Carlos Sainz’s appendicitis diagnosis.
Asked afterwards how he was feeling, Bearman responded: “Destroyed. Physically it was a really difficult race! Especially in the end, when I had the two guys on soft behind me, I had to basically push flat out and it was a mentally difficult race as expected, and physically I was struggling too, but great fun out there.”
With the Briton currently competing in his second F2 campaign, he acknowledged that the performance shone a positive light on his skills.
“I think I put in a good showing for myself, which is the main thing right?” said Bearman. “It’s difficult circumstances, not a lot of laps on track, but I think I maximised everything today. I felt like I was a bit quicker than [Fernando] Alonso and [George] Russell in front, but not enough to catch, the gap was pretty big.
“I lost a lot of time trying to overtake [Nico] 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.”
In terms of whether he might be expecting a sore neck on Sunday, Bearman answered: “I think especially my lower back and my neck, it’s 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. It was good motivation to finish the race quicker!”
And on whether he feels ready to repeat this feat should another opportunity arise, the youngster added: “You tell me. Did I do enough?”
Amongst those watching Bearman’s performance from the Ferrari garage was Sainz, who had returned to the paddock after successfully undergoing surgery on Friday.
