Barcelona’s first practice session will not look like a normal Friday hour. Seven of the 11 Formula 1 teams are set to hand cars to rookies in FP1, creating a busy development session at a circuit where every lap of clean data usually matters. The line-up includes Fred Vesti, Dino Beganovic, Leonardo Fornaroli, Ayumu Iwasa, Luke Browning, Paul Aron, and Colton Herta.
The session is part of the sport’s mandatory rookie running rules, which require teams to give drivers with limited Grand Prix experience official practice time. Barcelona is a logical place to do it. Many junior drivers know the circuit from the feeder categories, and teams understand the track well enough to judge whether a rookie is building up properly.
WHO IS DRIVING IN FP1
Mercedes will put Fred Vesti in place of Kimi Antonelli, while Ferrari will run Dino Beganovic instead of Lewis Hamilton. McLaren has selected Leonardo Fornaroli, who will take over Lando Norris’s car. Red Bull will give Ayumu Iwasa the session in place of Isack Hadjar.
Williams will run Luke Browning instead of Alex Albon, Audi will give Paul Aron Nico Hulkenberg’s car, and Cadillac will place Colton Herta in Sergio Perez’s seat. For some of these drivers, Barcelona is another step in an existing reserve role. For others, it is a first real chance to feel current Formula 1 machinery in a Grand Prix weekend.
THE CONFIRMED ROOKIE LIST
- Fred Vesti for Mercedes, replacing Kimi Antonelli
- Dino Beganovic for Ferrari, replacing Lewis Hamilton
- Leonardo Fornaroli for McLaren, replacing Lando Norris
- Ayumu Iwasa for Red Bull, replacing Isack Hadjar
- Luke Browning for Williams, replacing Alex Albon
- Paul Aron for Audi, replacing Nico Hulkenberg
- Colton Herta for Cadillac, replacing Sergio Perez
THE PRESSURE IS DIFFERENT FOR EACH DRIVER
Vesti already has previous Mercedes reserve experience, Beganovic arrives through the Ferrari development system, and Fornaroli steps into a McLaren after a standout junior career. Iwasa is not new to FP1, Browning is adding more work with Williams, Aron keeps building reserve-role flexibility, and Herta gets another high-profile chance inside the F1 weekend structure.
WHAT FULL-TIME DRIVERS LOSE
The cost is that seven race drivers will miss FP1 at a weekend where early setup work is valuable. That does not ruin a Grand Prix, but it compresses the job. Drivers who step back in for FP2 must quickly catch up on track conditions, tyre feel, and balance direction while their team processes data gathered by someone else.
That trade-off makes communication important. A rookie who returns the car cleanly and gives clear feedback helps the race driver. A messy session can leave the team short on reference laps. At Barcelona, where small balance differences can shape the whole weekend, the quality of that first hour matters.
The other complication is that a rookie session is never only about the rookie. Engineers still need a useful programme, and the regular race driver still needs a clear handover afterward. If the session is noisy, the team loses more than a single practice hour. If it is calm and structured, the squad keeps both the mandatory mileage and a clean setup path for the rest of the weekend.
That is why these Friday shuffles are judged on more than headline lap time. Teams care about tyre prep, traffic management, radio discipline, and whether the young driver can follow instructions without wasting run time. In a championship where every hour of data matters, a neat FP1 can be worth almost as much as a strong qualifying lap.
WHAT TO WATCH IN THE SESSION
The headline will not simply be lap time. Fuel loads, run plans, engine modes, and tyre targets will vary too much for a clean ranking. The better clues will be consistency, track limits, traffic awareness, and how quickly each driver settles into the programme.
For the teams, a successful FP1 is simple: gather usable data, protect the car, and give the rookie enough mileage to learn. For the drivers, it is a rare audition under bright lights. Barcelona’s rookie shuffle should make Friday practice more interesting than usual long before qualifying sets the official competitive order.
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