18-Year-Old F1 Driver Wins Driver Of The Day For Ferrari

It was the second Grand Prix of the F1 season on Saturday in Saudi Arabia, and the story of the race came from the most unexpected place.

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz was taken out of the weekend after being diagnosed with appendicitis, forcing the team to pivot to reserve driver Oliver Bearman. Sounds simple enough, except Bearman was thrown into the grid at just 18-years-old, with no experience at all in Formula 1. 

And as the third-youngest driver ever to race in an F1 Grand Prix, expectations were low. Bearman exceeded all of them. 

Bearman put together a brilliant race, driving clean lap after clean lap, improving on his P11 qualifying position and holding off star drivers like Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton to finish P7. That's about as good of a debut as you can have at any age, and to do it at just 18 is remarkably impressive.

Oliver Bearman, Ferrari SF-24 during the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Saturday. (Photo by Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images/Sipa USA) 

F1 Still Has A Max Verstappen Problem

Bearman was the story of the day, finishing just four places behind his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc. But yet again, Max Verstappen led from the start, winning his ninth consecutive race without ever being remotely challenged.

His Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, finished a distant second and despite being assessed a five-second penalty for an unsafe pit release, still easily outpaced Leclerc. Before the start of the season, some teams expressed hope that they had closed the gap to Red Bull, and the Saudi Arabian track was seen as one that could tighten the field.

But Verstappen's gap to Leclerc was still nearly 19 seconds, even though he had little need to push at any point during the race. 

With team turmoil thanks to allegations against Christian Horner, rumors have suggested Verstappen could leave his team for Mercedes, replacing the departing Lewis Hamilton. That might be the best thing for F1 competition moving forward, as the combination of Red Bull's dominant car and the best driver on the grid continues to make for extremely predictable finishes. 

At the very least though, Bearman's debut at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix provided some excitement. Hopefully there's more where that came from in Australia.