Oliver Bearman names one thing that ‘surprised’ him about driving Ferrari F1 car

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Oliver Bearman has shared something that ‘surprised’ him when he got behind the wheel of the Ferrari F1 car last weekend.

Bearman made his F1 debut in Saudi Arabia after Carlos Sainz had to go hospital with appendicitis.

And he admits that the experience of driving the SF-24 didn’t entirely match his expectations.

Bearman stepped into the car on Friday for the final practice session and then qualifying, where he placed 11th.

He would then progress to seventh place in the race to earn the driver of the day award.

The 18-year-old was preparing to start on pole position in the Formula 2 feature race with Prema.

It’s his second season in the feeder series after he finished sixth in the standings last year.

Oliver Bearman says heat of F1 cars surprised him

Speaking to BBC Sport, Bearman revealed that he was much hotter behind the wheel than he has been at lower levels.

As a result, it felt as if there was no opportunity to ‘rest’ when he was out on track.

Like the previous event in Bahrain, the race in Jeddah took place under the night-time lights, but temperatures were still somewhere between 25 and 30 degrees.

He said: “That’s actually one thing that surprised me in F1, how hot the cockpit is compared to F2 and F3 – because of the complexity of the systems and the packaging is very tight – so there’s no rest out there.”

Will Bearman race for Ferrari in Australia?

Bearman is now waiting to find out what car he’ll be driving when he arrives in Melbourne next week.

Plan-A is for the teenager to return to F2 duties and try to recover some of the points he lost in Saudi Arabia.

But if Sainz needs longer to recover, then it’s possible that Ferrari will have to call upon his services again.

The Scuderia intend to wait until Friday, prior to the first two practice sessions, to make a call on Sainz’s availability.

The Spaniard was seen in the paddock during the race in Jeddah but Sky F1’s Simon Lazenby says he returned to the track against doctors’ orders.