Oliver Bearman got quite the early morning wake-up call on Friday in Sao Paulo when he was told he would be replacing a poorly Kevin Magnussen at short notice for this weekend's sprint race and Grand Prix.
It was the Briton's third race weekend of the season. He made his Formula 1 debut with Ferrari in Saudi Arabia at the start of March, replacing Carlos Sainz who had been sidelined with appendicitis, and scored points by finishing in P7.
Bearman picked up another point when he subsequently drove for Haas in Azerbaijan, after Magnussen was handed a one race ban for accruing too many penalty points in the course of 12 months.
Bearman's busy season continued in Brazil. Making his bow at Interlagos, he was third fastest in practice and got through to the final round of qualifying for the sprint, only to finish the 24-lap race in 14th.
He missed the cut at the end of the first round of qualifying on Sunday morning and struggled in the Grand Prix in the wet conditions, tangling with Zhou Guanyu and Franco Colapinto and skidding off track at one point.
He survived to cross the line in 12th place, while team mate Nico Hulkenberg crashed out mid-race. The result brought a five race points-scoring run for Haas to an abrupt finish.
“It was a tough race,” Bearman admitted. “Too many mistakes from my side that really compromised our race. I think on one side, we finished P12 quite close to the points, despite the amount of mistakes I made.
“On the other side, too many mistakes, too many time losses and stuff like that. It was a really tough day," he said. But there was also a bright side: "I learnt a lot, that’s for sure, for the next time.”
Next time may not come until next year, when he will take over the Haas seat full time with Esteban Ocon moving from Alpine to take the wheel of the second car. Ocon was the unexpected runner-up in Sao Paulo.
“I’ll take the positives that I’ve learned the track," Bearman said. "Which I wasn’t going to be able to do before next year. Then of course racing in these conditions under the water, it’s quite rare that you get to do so.
“Every lap in the wet is really valuable and I managed to do a lot today, so I’m quite happy with that," he added. "That was really valuable."
“It’s been a very tough day for the team," acknowledged Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu. "We didn’t perform today, and others scored heavily. "Operationally, we didn’t maximise everything here.
"That’s something we need to take home and review," he admitted "A slight positive was that Ollie’s pace on inters was actually better than what we thought we could achieve.
"We have to look ahead for the last three races," he added, with Magnussen set to return for Las Vegas. "We have decent pace in the dry so we need to reset and refocus to get the best out of the car and everyone for the next three.”
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