The already expected Verstappen victory got overshadowed by the debut of the British F2 driver Oliver Bearman for the Scuderia
Better known in F2 as “Ollie” Oliver Bearman broke many records on his F1 Debut. He is the youngest driver ever to drive for Ferrari. Also the first driver ever to share the grid with his birth year’s world champion (2005 Fernando Alonso). In fact, the day Ollie was born Fernando Alonso was getting on the podium for P2 in the Spanish Grand Prix 2005. In addition to that he took another historical record from Lewis Hamilton, The 7-Time World Champion would have been the first British to drive for Ferrari since Eddie Irvin in 1999 and the first one to do it in the XXI Century.
Apart from F1 trivia, the British driver did a solid race. Managed to score P7 in front of other two British drivers Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton who got their races compromised by strategy. After Lance Stroll‘s DNF the Brit is now 10th on the driver standings as only 12 drivers managed to score points in the first two rounds. Lewis Hamilton was the first to congratulate him after the race was over.
Lewis Hamilton and Kevin Magnussen defended their positions for most of the race
Some of the best defense we have seen in the season was given by the two podium on debut-achieving drivers on the grid. Lewis Hamilton fought on old medium tires against a way quicker McLaren in Oscar Piastri for most of the race. The Australian later joked about him becoming a “Mercedes rear wing expert” after the race.
A more humble result of 10th place was achieved by Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg. His partner Kevin Magnussen pitted earlier. After that Nico was standing in P10 with Kevin behind. Magnussen defended against the quicker Williams of Alex Albon, Ocon and the RB of Tsunoda. In addition, he got various time penalties for driving outside the lines and crashing with Ocon‘s front wing. However, he secured 11th place, turning into 12th after the time was added. This strategy gave his teammate a gap to pit and not lose that 10th place.
After all the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this is how the world championship standings look:
The next 3 races are making European Fans wake up early
Australia continues being one of the first races of the season after giving the season-opener honors to Bahrain. Japan changed drastically from the late stages of the calendar to an early date and China is back. Very different tracks and probably the first ones where the teams will bring updates to their cars. However, we might have to wait for European races for some teams to do it.
Guillermo Lorenzo Manzano
