Carlos Sainz of Ferrari will not be able to race in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix because he has an episode of appendicitis. In Sainz's place, Ferrari's young talent, Oliver Bearman, will make his Formula 1 start. Sainz started to feel bad earlier in the week, which is why he didn't go to his Wednesday media appearance. He took part in Thursday's free practice sessions and set the seventh-fastest time in the last session, but he said it was hard to push the car to its limits. After more tests, it was found that Sainz has appendicitis, which means he can't stay in Jeddah for the rest of the weekend. Oliver Bearman, who was in the pole position for Saturday's F2 feature race and is currently serving as Ferrari's reserve driver, will take up driving duties beginning with Friday's FP3.
A Brief statement said, "Carlos Sainz has been diagnosed with appendicitis and will require surgery,” read a brief statement issued by Ferrari, who wished their driver “a speedy recovery”.
“As from FP3 and for the rest of this weekend, he will be replaced by reserve driver Oliver Bearman. Oliver will therefore take no further part in this round of the F2 Championship.”
F1 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix: Carlos Sainz's Replacement
At the age of 18, Bearman got his first taste of Formula 1 cars with Ferrari near the end of the previous year. This set the stage for two FP1 starts with Haas at the Mexican and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix.
Bearman has done more F1 test sessions with the Scuderia since then and is now racing in Formula 2 with the Prema Racing team. One impressive thing about him is that he won four races and finished sixth in the feeder series results the previous season. Even though Prema had a rough start to the 2024 season in Bahrain, Bearman made a great comeback and won the pole position at the fast Jeddah track. In spite of this, Ferrari made it clear that he will not be racing in the Formula 2 weekend.
Because of the unique difficulties of this weekend's Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, Ferrari has brought back a rear wing design that was used in the 2023 Formula 1 season. While the Jeddah Corniche Circuit is technically a street track, teams tend to use a low-drag setup more akin to what is used at Monza because of how fast and moving the track is. After the first race of the season in Bahrain, many teams have changed the rear and beam wing specifications to make the cars more efficient in straight lines in preparation for the Jeddah track.
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