Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris and five other drivers will miss the first free practice of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. For one hour they will give up their cars to young racers.
According to the rule that appeared in Formula 1 in 2022, each team must make a car available twice during the season for Friday training to a driver who has not driven more than two Grand Prix in Formula 1. To meet this requirement, Abu Dhabi has nine out of ten teams that will put young people behind the wheel.
Earlier this season, Red Bull Racing did not invite any young drivers, meaning that both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez will return their cars to the Yas Marina circuit. Isaac Hajjar and Jake Dennis will train instead.
Frederic Vesti will replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. Robert Schwartzman will drive Charles Leclerc’s car at Ferrari.
In McLaren, Lando Norris will hand over his car to Pato O’Ward, and in Aston Martin – Fernando Alonso Felipe Drugovich. Jack Douhan returns to the wheel of Alpine – the Australian driver will replace Esteban Ocon. At Williams, Zach O’Sullivan will replace Alex Albon.
Theo Pourcher will replace Guanyu Zhou at Alfa Romeo, and Oliver Berman will drive Nico Hulkenberg’s car at Haas.
Only at AlphaTauri there will be no replacements, as the team has already met the requirement twice to make the car available to young drivers during the season. We are talking about Liam Lawson, who replaced Daniel Ricciardo when the Australian broke his hand, and Isaac Hajjar, who held the first training with the team in Mexico City instead of Yuki Tsunoda.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
