Bearman to replace Magnussen at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Oliver Bearman will step in to the VF-24 alongside Nico Hulkenberg for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, following Kevin Magnussen’s one-race suspension in Baku.

At last Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, Kevin Magnussen was involved in a collision with Alpine racer Pierre Gasly at the Variante della Roggia chicane, and the stewards had deemed him wholly to blame for the incident.

The Dane was hit with a ten-second penalty, but more crucially, he was handed two penalty points on his licence as well. The penalty means that Magnussen has reached the maximum of 12 points, which has triggered a race ban for the next race at Baku.

The American outfit has now announced that Ferrari junior driver, Oliver Bearman will replace Magnussen at the forthcoming Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

“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 Oliver 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.”

Commenting on the announcement, Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu said: “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.”