Carlos Sainz successfully operated on after his appendicitis attack, announces Ferrari

Suffering since Wednesday, Carlos Saint was forced to withdraw from the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, this Friday morning, after suffering an attack of appendicitis.

Before this morning, it seemed that the Spanish driver was suffering from gastroenteritis. But ultimately, the “gastro” turned into an attack of appendicitis this Friday. A few hours before Free Practice 3 at the end of the morning, Ferrari therefore announced that its pilot had to undergo emergency surgery and that he would be replaced by Oliver Bearman, resident of Formula 2.

“Carlos is out of the operating room”

This afternoon, Carlos Sainz was operated successfully, reveals his team on X. “Carlos came out of the operating room. Everything went well and he is now resting in the hospital. We send him all our support for a speedy recovery”, commented on his team on the social network.

Update on @ Carlossainz55:

Carlos is out of surgery. Everything went well and he is now resting at the hospital. We're sending him our full support for a quick recovery 🙏 pic.twitter.com/m3ZoXXzBPQ

- Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) March 8, 2024

Carlos Sainz's appendicitis recalls the episode Alex experienced Albon during the 2022 Italian Grand Prix. Affected by the same case, the Thai had been replaced by a Nyck de Vries sparkling for its premiere. Author of a nice 9th place, his performance had, in part, earned him his first contract in F1 the next year. Bodes well for Ollie Bearman, replacement for Carlos Sainz?

Bearman in the top 10

While the winner of the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix was in hospital, Oliver Bearman was therefore chosen by Ferrari to replace him for the end of the weekend. The Formula 2 driver was able to get into the swing of F1 quickly during Free Practice 3, despite a red flag at the end of the session caused by the accident of Guanyu-Zhou.

At the end of the session, the 18-year-old Englishman ranked 10th, just under 9 tenths behind Max Verstappen, first. At 18 p.m., he will then have to increase the pace again to try to get into Q2, or even Q3, to best prepare for his first race in the premier category.

Kelman Marti