Ollie Bearman called his surprise 2024 Ferrari debut in Saudi Arabia a brutal reality check, saying the jump from Formula 2 to Formula 1 “hurt” and left his neck “gone.” The 18-year-old reserve was pressed into action after Carlos Sainz was ruled out with appendicitis and had roughly one hour of practice in the SF-24 before his first FP3 run, which he said felt about 12 seconds faster than his F2 pole lap. Teammate Esteban Ocon echoed that no amount of preparation can fully replicate F1’s demands.

Bearman qualified 11th at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, missing Q3 by 0.036 seconds, then finished seventh in the race after holding off Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton. The outing made him the youngest driver to race for Ferrari and was made special for him by his father watching from the back of the garage. The SF-24, a race-winning, title-challenging car during 2024, provided a competitive platform for the high-pressure debut.

The performance in Jeddah helped raise Bearman’s profile and helped pave the way to a confirmed full-time seat with Haas for 2025. His showing in that night race was credited with increasing his stock and he later made a strong impression in his 2025 rookie season.

Carlos Sainz completed the first full lap of Madrid’s new 3.35-mile (5.4 km) Madring in a 450 bhp Ford Mustang GT prepared for Williams and offered a stark early verdict. He said the layout was “far more extreme than anyone had expected,” called it technical and faster than it looks, likened parts to a “roller coaster,” and suggested a signature turn could become one of the most iconic corners in the sport. He described the mix of elements as “quite a cocktail.”

Sainz highlighted how the circuit combines blind corners, steep elevation changes and high speeds, and said those characteristics should reward aggressive racing and clever energy management. He pointed to the Turn 1-2 chicane and Turn 13 as overtaking opportunities, a long acceleration zone toward Turn 5-6 where battery deployment could be a tactical weapon, and a high-speed section beyond Turn 9. He praised the flowing, wide Valdebebas esses and compared them to Spa and Silverstone.

He singled out “La Monumental,” the Turn 12 bullring-shaped banking with a 24% gradient and a partially blind entry, and said he expected many drivers to take it flat-out. He warned the tight 117-degree Turn 20 beneath the motorway could surprise drivers and described a dramatic elevation into a blind, heavy-braking Turn 8 that he “really enjoyed.” The 5.4 km, 22-turn layout sits at IFEMA near Madrid’s Barajas airport, with fresh asphalt laid around the fairgrounds and a purpose-built second half still under construction. An FIA inspection is scheduled at the end of the month as teams prepare F1 machinery. Organizers have secured Madrid to host the Spanish Grand Prix from 2026 through 2035 and plan a race at Madring in early September, with Barcelona-Catalunya to remain part of a rotational arrangement for the national round. Preparations at the venue are being ramped up ahead of the inspection and any competitive activity.

Former F1 champion Jenson Button said on the Beyond the Grid podcast that mental-health pressures remain central to drivers’ careers and that no competitor is immune to insecurity. He pointed to a team radio moment when Lewis Hamilton asked, “Have I done something wrong?” to show how even champions can spiral into self-doubt, which Button said can leave talented drivers “in a really dark place” and potentially cause them to fail.

Button said openness about mental-health struggles can be a strength, praising Lando Norris for his candor and arguing that drivers largely must “sort out their demons” themselves. He urged team leaders to listen to drivers’ problems without being overly opinionated and praised figures such as Ross Brawn for calm leadership, but said even supportive bosses cannot remove the internal pressure drivers feel.

Button framed the elite-athlete experience as one in which losses far outnumber wins, citing a conversation with Roger Federer, who estimated he lost about 75% of his matches. To illustrate the rarity of victory in motorsport, Button referred to his own record of 15 wins in about 300 races and warned that modern drivers face extra layers of stress from social media and public exposure. His comments aired on Beyond the Grid and were reported by other outlets; he presented them as part of a wider conversation linking psychological pressures across F1, MotoGP and other elite sports, saying insecurity is a recurring professional experience and not a mark of weakness, which keeps mental health a priority in the sport.