Instead, it was the efforts of a driver who was 10 years old when Verstappen made his Formula 1 debut. These are two of the main focuses of this week’s edition of Autosport magazine, out today (14 March).
Ollie Bearman thought he was going to be kick-starting his F2 title campaign in Jeddah after qualifying on pole, but ended up being thrust into a Ferrari F1 seat thanks to Carlos Sainz falling ill. He therefore beat Lewis Hamilton (who was in F1 before Bearman was two years old!) to becoming a Ferrari GP driver.
Few debuts could have been more challenging than driving for F1’s most famous team at one of the fastest and trickiest venues, with virtually no preparation time, but the 18-year-old Briton impressed hugely on his way to seventh, ahead of Lando Norris and Hamilton.
Bearman was twice a finalist in the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award and showed pace on each occasion.
The winners of those contests, Zak O’Sullivan and Luke Browning, are also on the F1 package on the F2 and F3 grids respectively, so there’s a lot of rising British talent waiting to break into GP racing. His progress, and that of Verstappen in beating team-mate Sergio Perez, are described by Alex Kalinauckas.
Away from F1, Josef Newgarden showed that he will again be a force in IndyCar this season with an impressive victory in St Petersburg, where Joey Barnes was watching, while Marcus Simmons talks to British Touring Car Championship boss Alan Gow about the series’ smaller 2024 grid. And from Qatar, Rachit Thukral details the start of the 2024 MotoGP season as Francesco Bagnaia kicked off his title defence and Marc Marquez made his Ducati debut.
From another era, Bruce McLaren’s daughter Amanda tells Steve Hindle about how the family recovered from the tragedy of his fatal 1970 accident and has now become instrumental in preserving the company’s heritage.
On the UK motorsport scene, there’s plenty to look forward to in 2024, and Stephen Lickorish, Stefan Mackley, Marcus Pye and Kevin Turner pick out some anticipated highlights.
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