Why Kevin Magnussen regrets putting Oliver Bearman forward to replace him in Brazil

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Kevin Magnussen missed his second Formula 1 race of 2024 in Brazil. He was present for Thursday’s media duties, but then became ill overnight.

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu duly turned to Oliver Bearman. Bearman had replaced Magnussen in Azerbaijan, when the Danish driver was banned for accumulating 12 penalty points in the space of a year.

The F2 driver will also be one of Magnussen’s successors in 2025 as he races for the team full-time. He’s partnering Esteban Ocon in an all-new line-up.

Haas came to Brazil on a five-race scoring streak, with Magnussen enjoying his best spell of the season. He’s rarely outqualified Nico Hulkenberg but did so at successive races in the USA and Mexico.

The former McLaren man delivered a season-high P7 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, having also picked up a couple of points in the USA Sprint. Given that he won’t be racing in F1 next year, he seems to be driving without the burden of pressure.

His absence potentially cost Haas at Interlagos as their streak came to an end. Hulkenberg was disqualified for receiving assistance from the marshals, while Bearman came home 12th.

Kevin Magnussen would have raced in Brazil if he knew a rainstorm was coming

Magnussen revealed on his ‘Debrief’ show for Viaplay Denmark that he’d actually put Bearman forward for the Brazil weekend. When he felt too unwell to race, he urged Komatsu to turn to the youngster.

Bearman was a magnificent stand-in at the Azerbaijan GP, bringing home a point in 10th. Clearly, he’d earned the trust of Magnussen by doing so.

He showed formidable pace on a dry Friday, outpacing Hulkenberg and reaching SQ3. However, he struggled in his first wet F1 outing, making a series of errors in the race after a Q1 exit.

Magnussen says he would have been more inclined to race if he knew that it was going to rain so heavily. This isn’t necessarily a slight on Bearman; he’ll see it as a missed opportunity for a big result.

Ex-Haas boss Guenther Steiner unimpressed by ‘lucky’ Oliver Bearman

Rain is often seen as the great leveller in F1, but for the most part, the pecking order broadly stays the same. But conditions were so treacherous in Sao Paulo that the field was somewhat scrambled.

Alpine were the big beneficiaries as they scored an extraordinary double podium through Ocon and Pierre Gasly. That giant 33-point haul catapulted them above Haas in the standings.

World champion Fernando Alonso and multiple race-winner Carlos Sainz both crashed on Sunday, so it was perhaps unfair to expect too much from a rookie. Bearman watched Max Verstappen’s 2016 onboard to help him prepare but this test perhaps came too soon.

Former Haas boss Guenther Steiner says the race highlighted his lack of experience. Steiner says Bearman was ‘lucky’ that he finished the race, because he looked like he was ‘trying to find the track’.