Oliver Bearman will race for Haas in next weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix in place of the banned Kevin Magnussen, the team has confirmed.
Magnussen picked up the final two penalty points that took him to 12 on his Super License and picked up an automatic one-race suspension, ruling him out of the Baku weekend. Bearman is one of the Haas reserve drivers and made an impressive substitute appearance for Ferrari in Saudi Arabia earlier this season, and has now been officially confirmed to be racing again in Azerbaijan.
“I’m excited that Ollie will be driving the VF-24 alongside Nico [Hulkenberg] in Baku,” team principal Ayao Komatsu said. “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 better teammate than Nico to provide him with a reference.”
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Bearman will step up to a full-time race seat with Haas in 2025, and believes the work he’s already done with the team this season will help him get the most out of his opportunity in Baku.
“It’s definitely more of a challenge stepping in to race as a reserve driver, with limited prep time and so on, but I’m in the fortunate position of having done it earlier in the year with Scuderia Ferrari, so I can at least call on that experience,” Bearman said.
“I’ve also had four FP1 sessions with MoneyGram Haas F1 Team in the VF-24 already this season, so undoubtedly that will also prove to be valuable in tackling the full race weekend in Baku. The team is in good form at the moment and I’ll do my best to be prepared with the time we have available. The aim is to get out there and have a solid weekend in Azerbaijan.”
Magnussen’s 12 penalty points will be removed from his Super License after his one-race suspension, allowing him to return with a clean license at the following race in Singapore.