Bearman will substitute for Carlos Sainz after the Spaniard was diagnosed with appendicitis on Friday morning.
With Sainz undergoing surgery, the 18-year-old Ferrari Academy member was asked to take his place for the balance of the weekend.
“I woke up this morning fully prepared and fully ready for my F2 race,” the Englishman admitted.
“I got the call pretty late on in the day, just a couple of hours before FP3 that I would be doing it.
“Of course, it’s not the circumstances I would like to make my F1 debut and I wish the best to Carlos and hope he recovers well.
“But, nonetheless, it’s a fantastic opportunity.”
Bearman had just an hour of practice before qualifying, leaving little time to familiarise himself with the team, the car, the circuit, and every other aspect of being a fully-fledged F1 driver.
With the call to replace Sainz coming so late, it left little time for the Englishman to think about the enormity of the opportunity.
“I honestly didn’t have time to get nervous or to overthink it because it was so late that I literally had to focus straight away on trying to get up to speed and catch up for lost time,” he said.
“Having missed out on Thursday, it made my life a little bit more difficult, I’d say.
“So yeah, I was pretty much flat out with the engineers trying to figure out everything.
“I didn’t have time, I was just focused on what to look out for and what to do. I didn’t have time to think about the gravity of the situation.”
Bearman ended Free Practice 3 a solid 10th courtesy of a late qualifying run, a result that perhaps flattered slightly after he skipped across the back of the kerb at Turn 22.
Nonetheless, he completed 21 laps and was within seven-tenths of team-mate Charles Leclerc around the ultra-fast Jeddah Corniche circuit.
In his first qualifying session, he set the 11th best time – missing out on a berth in Qualifying 3 but an impressive performance given his lack of preparation.
“It’s definitely one of the most difficult tracks on the calendar for sure, being a street track and being so fast as well. But he handled it perfectly,” Leclerc said of his young counterpart.
“As soon as he got in with the engineers this morning he had so much to understand in order for him to be ready that we didn’t have much time to speak.
“The only thing I said to him when he came this morning was like ‘Are you excited?’ and he was like ‘Yeah, I cannot wait!’ which I expected this answer.
“It was good to see the excitement for him, for his first race in Ferrari, and again he’s done a great job.”
It’s a view shared by pole-sitter Max Verstappen.
“What he has done has been very, very impressive,” the three-time world champion opined.
“I was watching his first few laps in FP3 because that’s when you can judge if someone is comfortable or not in a car, and by lap two, lap three I was like ‘OK, that’s a strong start, I like to see that!’.
“To be P11, I think at the time only six-tenths off pole, that is more than I think you could have asked from him.
“He’s done an incredible job, and I hope that he also enjoyed it a little bit out there, because it’s quite stressful when you come into a new team basically, a new car, and without any experience, and this track.
“Hopefully, he is happy with himself also, not that he says ‘Ah I didn’t make it to Q3 or whatever’, because I think everyone within the paddock has seen that he did a great job.”
While not saying it explicitly, Bearman insinuated that he was disappointed by his qualifying performance.
“I think the main loss was that I did the lap on Lap 2,” he explained.
“My first lap was a bit scruffy in Sector 3 and I lost a lot of time there, and then the tyres aren’t in the best window for the next lap. So that’s my mistake.
“I felt like my Lap 2 was pretty decent. You know, the gaps are so close. I see little pinches of time here and there but that’s how it is, it’s fine margins.”
At 18, Bearman is poised to become the youngest driver to ever race for Ferrari in Formula 1, and its 97th in total.
He’ll also be the first rookie the Scuderia has fielded since Arturo Merzario at the 1972 British Grand Prix.
“It’s been such a quick progression in my career,” Bearman noted.
“Two years ago, I was in F4 still. I only did my first F1 test like three months ago.
“It’s been a really quick progression.
“I think on Monday, I’ll be quite proud,” he added.
“At the moment, I’m just trying to maximise things and get some points because that’s my big goal.
“I’m sure when I take a step back and pinch myself, I’ll be quite proud.”
Discussion about this post