Bearman reveals disappointment from F1 debut

Oliver Bearman has stated that not advancing into the final segment of qualifying was a disappointing element of his Grand Prix debut.

The Briton was promoted to a Ferrari race seat last weekend in Saudi Arabia when Carlos Sainz dropped out of the event after being diagnosed with appendicitis.

After taking part in final practice, Bearman qualified in 11th place as he narrowly missed out on a spot in the top 10 shootout, known as Q3, by half a tenth of a second.

Bearman managed to rise to seventh place in the race, drawing praise from fellow drivers for his performance around the challenging Jeddah circuit.

“I was disappointed not to be in Q3, but it was still a decent performance,” Bearman said.

“At least Saturday, in the race, I managed to prepare a lot better.

“We had a full day to do rather than a couple of hours' notice. Overall I was quite happy with how the race went.

“I think the thing that surprised me most was the amount of admin, there was so much media activities, so much more technical stuff than we have in F2.

“For a race at 8 PM, I was already on track at lunch time to prepare. The days are very, very long and full of hard work. That was a surprise.”

How Bearman found out the news

Following his F1 debut, Bearman's focus will now shift back to the Formula 2 championship having been pulled out of the Jeddah round after securing pole position for the Feature Race.

Bearman detailed how the news was fed through to him that he would be making his F1 debut, which came only hours before he jumped behind the wheel.

“I was actually having lunch on Friday, having done pole in Formula 2, I was getting ready to start P10 in the Sprint Race and trying to figure out the best way to go about that,” he said.

“When I got the call that I would be doing F1, it was quite a surprise, a happy surprise of course.

“Not the circumstances that I wanted to make my debut through the misfortune of someone else, but it was a great opportunity.”