Scuderia Ferrari leaves Saudi Arabia celebrating a first podium finish of the season for Charles Leclerc, at the end of a pretty solitary race for third place, while Oliver Bearman had a dream debut. The team’s reserve driver, a product of the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy, began his weekend as a Formula 2 driver and ended it as the 97th driver to race for Ferrari in a Formula 1 Grand Prix. He is now also the 61st to score points at the wheel of a Prancing Horse car, thanks to a brilliant drive to seventh place.
At the age of 18 years and 305 days, the Englishman is the youngest driver to make his debut at the wheel of a Ferrari and along with Charles, this was the first event in which the Scuderia had fielded two alumni from its Academy. They are also the youngest ever pairing, with an average age of 22 years and 224 days – Charles is 26 years and 144 days old. That beats the record set by Chris Amon and Jacky Ickx at the 1968 Spanish Grand Prix. Today’s result, even in terms of points scored, shows that the Scuderia is currently second in the pecking order, which is very positive and confirms the progress made compared to the start of last season. However, it’s clear there is work to do to catch Red Bull which still has a clear advantage. When talking of Ferrari stars tonight in Jeddah, one has to also mention Carlos Sainz. Following an appendectomy on Friday afternoon, the Spaniard felt well enough to come to the track and watch proceedings from the garage, looking at the screens that would normally have shown his own progress. A great example of Scuderia team spirit.
Charles. Charles had a rather lonely race. He was passed for second place by Sergio Perez but then ran at a consistent pace on both the Medium tyres at the start and then the Hards fitted on lap 7 during the Safety Car period. The only fight Charles had was with Lando Norris, who had stayed out during the Safety Car and had yet to pit. Leclerc dispensed with the Englishman at two thirds distance and from then on was able to up the pace, even setting the fastest lap of the race, the eighth of his career, on the final lap. Unfortunately, by then Perez was out of reach and the Monegasque settled for third place.
Oliver. Bearman had a much more exciting time of it. The youngster from Chelmsford started on the Soft tyre from 11th on the grid and kept that position off the line, giving Yuki Tsunoda a hard time for tenth place. Oliver also switched to Hard tyres on lap 7 under the Safety Car and from then on his race got better and better. He passed Tsunoda and Guanyu Zhou and then duelled with Nico Hulkenberg, getting past him at his second attempt. With a clear track ahead of him, he picked up the pace, which meant he maintained position when Norris and Lewis Hamilton, who had stayed out during the Safety Car period, finally pitted. Showing great maturity, he kept focus despite having two far more experienced drivers on his tail, putting in similar lap times to Leclerc’s to take the flag in seventh place: a memorable day for him and useful points for the team. To cap it all, he won the fan vote to be nominated Driver of the Day with 48% of the vote.
Next stop Melbourne. After a test and two races in the space of three weeks, Formula 1 has a mini-break before the engines fire up again on 22 March, for the first free practice session for Round 3, the Australian Grand Prix, at Melbourne’s Albert Park.
Charles Leclerc #16
We maximised our potential today and couldn’t have done better than this. We struggled a bit on the Mediums, the Hards were tricky at first but improved throughout the stint and I was able to set the fastest lap on them with a bit of help from DRS. All in all, I felt good in the car.
Ollie did an exceptional job this weekend. To get into a Formula 1 car starting from FP3, when you don’t know the car and the track is one of the most challenging of the season, it is impressive to see someone get up to speed so quickly. It was super nice to see him so happy and excited all weekend and he’s done a great job
Oliver Bearman #38
What a great experience and opportunity to have my first race in Formula 1 with Scuderia Ferrari. It was physically demanding, especially in the end when I had Lando (Norris) and Lewis (Hamilton) behind me on Softs. I had to push flat out to maintain the gap and had to stay really focused, always checking my mirrors. It was a shame that the Safety Car came out so early, as I was comfortable on the Softs, but of course it was the right call to pit then and I’m very happy with the result.
I’m confident that I maximised everything today and had great fun out there. I’ll never forget this weekend. Thank you to the whole team for their support and for giving me the chance to race.
Fred Vasseur - Team Principal
With Charles today, I think we paid the price a little bit in the first part of the race of not being in clean air. Unfortunately, after the pit stop, he lost time with Lando Norris and so he was unable to get close enough to Sergio Perez to try and make the most of the five second penalty handed out to the Mexican. Overall, Charles produced a solid race and when he had a clear track ahead of him he was able to match the pace of the Red Bulls to the extent that he set the fastest lap at the very end. We have to put our rivals under pressure if we want to beat them and today, we didn’t manage it. The good news is that we have made progress in terms of the tyres and had minimal degradation.
As for Ollie, I didn’t have any specific expectations given the circumstance that led to him being in the car. And yet, he managed these two days amazingly well, almost like a veteran. There were no problems with his start or at the pit stop, things that were all new to him. He was always calm and precise with his feedback over the radio and gradually his confidence in the car grew so that towards the end he managed to keep two great drivers, Lando (Norris) and Lewis (Hamilton) behind him.
It was nice that Carlos was able to join us at the track today, just over 24 hours after his operation and we hope he will be able to race in Australia. If nothing else, this weekend has taught us that, if the need arises again, we have a reserve driver who is very much up to the task.