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.

Doohan’s appearances for Alpine did not count

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

Team Car Event Practice driver Event Practice driver
McLaren 4 Austria Alex Dunne Mexico Pato O’Ward
81 Italy Alex Dunne Abu Dhabi Pato O’Ward
Ferrari 16 Bahrain Dino Beganovic Austria Dino Beganovic
44 Mexico Antonio Fuoco Abu Dhabi Arthur Leclerc
Red Bull 1 Bahrain Ayumu Iwasa Mexico Arvid Lindblad
22/30 Britain Arvid Lindblad Abu Dhabi Arvid Lindblad
Mercedes 12 Australia Andrea Kimi Antonelli China Andrea Kimi Antonelli
63 Bahrain Frederik Vesti Mexico Frederik Vesti
Aston Martin 14 Bahrain Felipe Drugovich Abu Dhabi Cian Shields
18 Mexico Jak Crawford Abu Dhabi Jak Crawford
Alpine 7*/43 Japan Ryo Hirakawa Italy Paul Aron
10 Mexico Paul Aron Abu Dhabi Paul Aron
Haas 31 Spain Ryo Hirakawa Mexico Ryo Hirakawa
87 Bahrain Ryo Hirakawa Abu Dhabi Ryo Hirakawa
Racing Bulls 6 Australia Isack Hadjar China Isack Hadjar
30/22 Mexico Ayumu Iwasa Abu Dhabi Ayumu Iwasa
Williams 23 Spain Victor Martins Abu Dhabi Luke Browning
55 Bahrain Luke Browning Mexico Luke Browning
Sauber 5 Australia Gabriel Bortoleto China Gabriel Bortoleto
27 Britain Paul Aron Hungary Paul Aron

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