Formula 1 teams confirm full practice driver schedule for 2025 season

Nine Formula 1 drivers including championship contender Oscar Piastri will miss the first practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

F1 teams have confirmed which junior drivers will appear in first practice at Yas Marina tomorrow as they fulfil their obligations under the rules.

Pato O’Ward will make his fifth appearance for McLaren tomorrow as he stands in for Piastri during the first practice session. He previously drove for the team at this track in first practice for the 2022 and 2023 grands prix.

Arvid Lindblad, who will make his F1 debut with Racing Bulls next year, will make his third appearance in a practice session for their sister team Red Bull. Arthur Leclerc will return to practice for Ferrari alongside his brother Charles, as he did at this race last year.

Both Aston Martin’s regular drivers will miss the first practice session tomorrow as Formula 2 duo Jak Crawford and Cian Shields take the wheel.

Each team must allow drivers who have made fewer than three grand prix starts to appear in each of their cars twice during first practice over the course of the season. Some teams immediately fulfilled this requirement with one car at the beginning of the season because they had hired rookie drivers, such as Andrea Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes and Gabriel Bortoleto.

This did not apply in the case of Jack Doohan at Alpine as the team did not formally notify the FIA he was their choice of junior driver for those races. The same was also the case when Felipe Drugovich substituted for Fernando Alonso at short notice during the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The FIA doubled the number of practice sessions teams must allocate to junior drivers this year. Most teams chose to complete many of their practice runs during the last two non-sprint race events held on permanent circuits: the Mexican and Abu Dhabi grands prix. Several practice drivers also appeared in practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix, where teams tested their cars a month earlier.

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F1 teams’ official junior practice driver selections

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