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Formula 1: Ollie Bearman to drive for the suspended Kevin Magnussen in Azerbaijan

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3 months ago

September 6, 2024

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Formula 1: Ollie Bearman to drive for the suspended Kevin Magnussen in Azerbaijan

Ollie Bearman will get another F1 opportunity in 2024 before moving full-time to Haas in 2025. (Photo by Dave Hewison/Speed Media/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Ollie Bearman is getting a second Formula 1 substitute opportunity in 2024.

Haas announced Friday that Bearman would replace Kevin Magnussen at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix next weekend. Magnussen is suspended for the race by the FIA following an avoidable contact penalty at the Italian Grand Prix. The penalty led to Magnussen’s 12th penalty point of the past calendar year. That threshold triggers a one-race suspension.

Magnussen is the first driver to be suspended due to penalty points since Romain Grosjean in 2012. They are the only two drivers to get a one-race ban for penalty points in the 2000s.

Bearman, 19, steps into Magnussen’s car ahead of a full-time gig at Haas in 2025. The Ferrari reserve driver is set to compete for Haas next season along with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon. Nico Hulkenberg is heading to Sauber and Magnussen is a free agent. Bearman has also driven in multiple practice sessions for Haas already this season.

“I’m excited that Ollie will be driving the VF-24 alongside Nico in Baku,” Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu said in a statement. “He’s already shown great promise in his FP1 outings and post-season test, and he performed very well when he drove for Scuderia Ferrari in Saudi Arabia, picking up points in the process.

“This is another excellent opportunity for both Ollie and the team to work together, this time throughout an entire race weekend, and he couldn’t ask for a better teammate than Nico to provide him with a reference.”

The previous subbing that Komatsu mentions came when Carlos Sainz missed the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix because of an appendectomy. Bearman started the second race of the season in 11th and moved up four spots over the course of the race to finish seventh ahead of Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton.