Last Updated on November 1 2024, 2:18 pm
Kevin Magnussen is a marmite character in F1 land, with fans either appreciating his elbows out approach to racing or believing him to be reckless and driving dangerously on occasions. The Dane has no contract with the Haas team for next year having been replaced by Esteban Ocon.
This week Kevin revealed all hope was not yet gone for an F1 drive next year, touting it may be that he is racing alongside his current team mate, Nico Hulkenberg, but for Sauber-Audi.
The Haas F1 driver recently suffered the ignominy of an F1 race ban in Baku following him receiving twelve penalty points on his F1 super license in the rolling twelve month period over which they were accrued.
Haas F1 announce late driver switch
Oliver Bearman stepped in for the Azerbaijan weekend and scored as respectable point for his tenth place finish. Starting the penultimate lap he trailed team mate Nico Hulkenberg but a crash up ahead between Perez and Sainz provided the opportunity for the young Brit to sneak inside the sister Haas car and finish the Grand Prix ahead of his team mate
The official MoneyGram Haas F1 Team posted on X this afternoon that “driver Kevin Magnussen will not participate in Friday’s track running at the São Paulo Grand Prix after suffering with sickness. Official reserve driver Oliver Bearman will take over driving duties. The team wishes Kevin a quick recovery and will provide a further update in due course.” This leaves Haas F1 with a headache given the weekend in São Paulo is one including the Sprint format.
Bearman will take the wheel of Magnussen’s car for both the practice sessio0n and the Sprint shootout qualifying session, however the FIA regulations state that if Bearman performs the qualifying session for the Sprint, only he can drive the car in the race tomorrow morning.
This would mean Magnussen cannot return to the car until Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday, but with no running behind him this is clearly not ideal forefather himself of Haas. Whilst the team are yet to confirm the decision, its almost certain Magussen will be dropped from the entire weekend and given Bearman’s recent performance in Baku, Haas know their substitute driver will be on the money.
Perez responds to criticism of Red Bull
Bearman stuns in Jeddah
The young Brit has established himself this year as one of the best young drivers on the fringes of F1. At only the second event of the year, Carlos Sainz was taken ill with appendicitis overnight on Friday, so Bearman was pulled from his F2 race duties and had just one practice session to get to grips with the SF-24.
He qualified an admirable P11 and for his first F1 outing the half a second gap to his team mate Charles Leclerc was respectable. Come race day things were to get even better for Bearman on the technical and high speed track in Jeddah.
Having survived the start, Bearman piloted his Ferrari through the narrow track with its intimidating walls making up places to P7 where he took the chequered flag. Oliver finished ahead of big names that day with Lando Norris behind him in eight position and seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton one slot further back.
BREAKING STORY…. updates coming
F1 team renamed for 2025
The Red Bull F1 racing family have courted controversy ever since they arose from the ashes of the Ford-Jaguar F1 project. Loud and brash the team entered the paddock, often with pumping beats drowning out the pit lane such as “Who let the dogs out?”
A year later Red Bull billionaire Didi Mateschitz shocked the F1 world when he made his second acquisition of a team and it was fans favourite Minardi ahead of the 2006 season. The team was renamed Toro Rosso, reflecting its Italian heritage and the location of its base in Faenza.
For some time the team was considered the Red Bull junior team and became a breeding ground for the Austrian companies young driver programme. Yet over time the team has become more than just training ground for potential candidates for the Red Bull Racing programme but it has produced top F1 drivers like Sebastian Vettel (4 times WDC), Daniel Ricciardo (8 GP wins) and Max Verstappen who is heading towards his fourth consecutive F1 drivers’ titles… READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
