Ollie Bearman left seriously impressed with 36-year-old rival during Saudi Arabia Grand Prix

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Stand-in Ferrari driver Ollie Bearman has admitted he was impressed by aspects of how Nico Hulkenberg drove during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The teenager had a phenomenal debut in Jeddah and earned six points for Ferrari in place of Carlos Sainz.

Speaking after the race, via The Athletic, Bearman spoke about his battle with the experienced German.

Bearman praises Hulkenberg after Saudi Arabia Grand Prix

After narrowly missing out on reaching Q3 on Friday, Ollie Bearman had some traffic to move past to finish in the points.

He produced a fantastic move to overtake Yuki Tsunoda’s RB but spent some of the race looking at the back of a Haas.

Last season’s slowest car has improved a lot over the winter despite some worries during testing that they might have been left behind by the rest of the grid.

Kevin Magnussen may have collected a couple of harsh penalties but he played his part in a very clever strategy used by the team.

Nico Hulkenberg earned a point thanks to Magnussen holding up his rivals in Saudi Arabia and Ollie Bearman praised the 36-year-old’s race craft too.

In the heat of the moment, Bearman was far from happy with Hulkenberg, admitting he was ‘so slow’ at times.

He eventually got past the Haas and benefitted from Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton gambling on strategy to finish seventh.

Bearman impresses on Formula 1 debut

Speaking about Hulkenberg, Bearman said: “He seemed to use his battery in all the right places, and I seemed to use it in all the wrong places, so it took me a few laps to figure it out.”

Bearman’s explanation for not being able to immediately get past Hulkenberg in Saudi Arabia makes a lot of sense.

Hulkenberg is very experienced and has spent much of his Formula 1 career driving for teams who have been fighting in the midfield.

It means he’s had to develop his defensive skills to protect his position at times, while Bearman was still very much getting used to the car.

There’s a big difference between F2 and F1 and while Bearman may have to wait until next year to drive competitively in a Formula 1 car again, he did his future prospects in the sport no harm at all on Saturday evening.