"I'm trying not to die": Ferrari junior driver's exasperated team radio during the F1 Brazilian GP
Ferrari academy driver Oliver Bearman said he was "trying not to die" during the dangerous conditions at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday. The young British driver got to drive in the sport for the third time this year after Haas F1 driver Kevin Magnussen was ruled out of the first couple of days in Interlagos due to health issues.
The American team decided to continue with Bearman for the entire weekend after he impressed once again in the Sprint Shootout on Friday. However, the 19-year-old struggled in the wet conditions at the iconic Interlagos track on Sunday as he had no prior experience driving an F1 car in the rain.
In a video floating on social media, the junior driver is exasperated on his team radio during the heavy downpour in the race, saying:
“I can't even see mate. Talk to the FIA. This is really dangerous. I'm trying not to die.”
As per F1.com, the Ferrari reserve driver analyzed his P12 finish in the race and said:
"It was a tough race and there were too many mistakes from my side. On the one hand, we finished P12 – close to the points – despite the mistakes I made, but on the other hand, there were too many mistakes and lost time. It was a really tough day, and I learned a lot for sure.
I’ll take the positives that I’ve learned the track, something I wasn’t going to be doing before next year, and of course racing in these conditions, it’s rare, so that was really valuable.”
It wasn't a good afternoon for the Ferrari F1 team, given they could only manage to finish P5 courtesy of Charles Leclerc.
Ferrari F1 driver points out a key mistake during the Brazilian GP
Ferrari F1 driver Charles Leclerc said the Italian team's lack of performance at the Brazilian GP could be attributed to setup changes before the race. Speaking with Motorsportweek, the seven-time race winner said:
“I think I’m partly to blame because we decided [on] setups together with the team, and today I wanted to go into that direction. However, it was the wrong route for sure. Today, the pace was just not there. It was in qualifying, and we’re happy, in qualifying, we actually weren’t too bad.
With the new tires, and low fuel, you can extract more out of the car, but in the race, we were nowhere. More than being nowhere, it was extremely difficult to drive, extremely difficult to not make any mistakes.”
Ferrari is still in the race for the Constructors Championship at the end of the season with McLaren and Red Bull despite losing ground to both teams in Brazil.