(Melbourne) Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz is expected to return to the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix this weekend after recovering from appendicitis surgery, the Italian team announced on Wednesday.
The Spaniard missed the last F1 race in Saudi Arabia, replaced at short notice by young British reserve driver Oliver Bearman.
“Carlos Sainz should be back in the car, after having to miss Jeddah due to appendicitis,” Ferrari said in its race presentation.
With Sainz fit again, Bearman should return to Formula 2 not without making an impression after finishing in an impressive seventh place on his debut, illustrating his enormous potential at just 18 years old.
PHOTO GIUSEPPE CACACE, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Oliver Bearman
During the first race of the season in Bahrain, Carlos Sainz finished third behind the winner, the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull), and his Mexican teammate Sergio Pérez.
Red Bull scored another double in Jeddah, with Sainz’s teammate, Monegasque Charles Leclerc, completing the podium.
“We hope to be at the forefront on this circuit, which could produce a hierarchy similar to that observed in Jeddah,” said Fred le Français Vasseur, Ferrari team principal, about the event run on the street circuit. of Albert Park in Melbourne.
The son of former world rally champion Carlos Sainz will leave Ferrari at the end of the season to make way for Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time world champion from Mercedes.