Haas has confirmed Oliver Bearman as a replacement to Kevin Magnussen for the F1 Azerbaijan GP weekend, with the Dane getting a ban.
Having collected 12 points on his superlicense in a year’s time, the FIA handed one race ban to Haas driver Magnussen. The Dane immediately was to miss next weekend’s Azerbaijan GP in Baku, paving the way for a potential chance for another driver.
With Esteban Ocon unable to drive, all eyes were on Ferrari junior and Haas’ driver for 2025 season, Bearman, to get the chance. The team has done so by confirming the Brit, who gets his second F1 chance after replacing Carlos Sainz in Jeddah earlier in the year.
He finished seventh in that event and now has another chance before his full-time drive in 2025 with Haas. He will, therefore, miss next weekend’s F2 round at the same venue. “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,” said Bearman.
“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.”
Team boss Ayao Komatsu added: “I’m excited that Ollie will be driving the VF-24 alongside Nico in Baku. 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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