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The Haas F1 team announced F2 driver and Ferrari upcoming star Oliver Bearman as the official replacement of Kevin Magnusssen for the upcoming Azerbaijan GP scheduled next week. Oliver Bearman. The teenager will become the fourth British driver in F1. He has been impressive in his performance when he came as a last-minute stand-in for Ferrari's Carlos Sainz at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in March.
Why is Kevan Magnussen not playing?
The Danish Driver will not feature in the Azerbaijan GP due to the one-race ban that he got after his 12 penalty points on his Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile driver's license after the Italian GP last weekend. Magnussen has got several penalty points over the season like the Miami GP where contributed five such points in one race.
According to F1.com Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu shared his thoughts on seeing Oliver in Baku.
“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," he said.
"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 a better teammate than Nico to provide him with a reference," Ayao added.
Oliver also shared his two cents on the upcoming challenge to F1.com.
“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. 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 aim is to get out there and have a solid weekend in Azerbaijan," said the Brit.
Oliver has already secured a full-time contract with the Haas F1 team for the 2025 season. He will join the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris, and George Russell on the F1 grid next year.
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