Oliver Bearman, 18, will not keep Ferrari F1 place for Australian GP despite amazing debut in Saudi

OLIVER BEARMAN will be on standby for this week's Australian Grand Prix as Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz is expected to be back to fitness for the race.

The Brit, 18, was called up as an 11th hour-replacement for Sainz after the Spaniard had appendicitis ahead of qualifying for the Saudi Arabian GP.

Bearman defied expectations to come home in seventh place in Jeddah on his F1 debut.

However, he is now likely to return to his Formula 2 duties with Sainz fit again to compete.

Bearman will get behind the wheel of Prema Racing's car as he is cheered on by his TikTok sensation and law student girlfriend Estelle Ogilvy.

"Carlos Sainz is expected to be back in the car," Ferrari said.

Sainz, who is out of contract at the end of the season having lost his seat for 2025 to Lewis Hamilton, was third behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez at the season-opening Bahrain GP last month.

Speaking ahead of this week's Australian GP, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur said: "We expect to be frontrunners on this track, which could produce a similar pecking order to the one seen in Jeddah.

"We intend adopting an aggressive approach with the aim of putting pressure on the team that's won the first two races."

Meanwhile, Russian driver Nikita Mazepin has overturned the European Union sanctions against him.

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Mazepin was axed by the Haas team due to his father's links to Russia's president Vladimir Putin.

Dmitry Mazepin has bankrolled his son's motorsports career but Nikita was sacked by Haas following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

However, he has now been removed from the EU sanctions list - although any F1 return is highly unlikely.