An unexpected debut

Well Oliver Bearman was able to answer that question when he lined up to start the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the tender age of 18 years and 305 days. It has already been a very exciting weekend for this very young Englishman, because on Thursday evening he took a great pole position for the Formula 2 Feature Race. However, a phone call on Friday morning meant that instead of preparing for the junior category Sprint race, due to start at 18.10, the Scuderia Ferrari reserve driver had to switch his focus to making his Formula 1 debut.  

 Why? Carlos Sainz had been feeling unwell with suspected food poisoning, and still took part in Thursday's free practice, but he was then diagnosed with appendicitis. He has already undergone successful surgery and everyone wishes him a speedy recovery. Therefore, it fell to Ollie to slide into the cockpit of the SF-24 for the third free practice session which got underway at 16.30 today, to get to grips with a car he had never driven. And then came qualifying.

A bright future is predicted for the Ferrari Driver Academy student and in qualifying he did really well, eventually missing the cut to Q3 by just 37 thousandths of a second. A blink of an eye is all it took, with fellow Brit Sir Lewis Hamilton, a Ferrari driver next year, snatching the final place to get to Q3.