Oscar Piastri will have to relinquish his McLaren for one practice session during the decisive season finale in Abu Dhabi. In line with the 2025 rookie obligations, the Australian – who is battling for the world title at Yas Marina – will be replaced by test and reserve driver Pato O’Ward. Several teams still need to deploy an inexperienced driver one more time to comply with the strict FIA rules.
The FIA regulations stipulate that each driver must hand over their car to a rookie at least twice per season during FP1. Some teams already had a rookie in their regular line-up this year, such as Mercedes and Racing Bulls. This is not the case for McLaren, and therefore Pato O’Ward will take over the first free practice on Friday. As a result, Piastri has to give up valuable training time; teammate Lando Norris has already fulfilled his rookie obligations. The Australian is currently third in the championship, sixteen points behind the Brit, but still has a chance at the world title this weekend.
Large Number of Rookies
No less than seven teams have waited until the last race weekend to complete their mandatory rookie sessions. This is not surprising: due to the large number of street circuits and sprint races, opportunities were scarce in 2025. At Red Bull, Arvid Lindblad – who will move up to Racing Bulls next year – takes over Yuki Tsunoda’s car. Ayumu Iwasa, in turn, replaces Liam Lawson. In addition, we see Ryo Hirakawa at Haas, Jak Crawford at Aston Martin, and Luke Browning at Williams.
The only team that has not yet announced a replacement is Ferrari. Earlier this season, Dino Beganovic drove two training sessions on behalf of Charles Leclerc. Antonio Fuoco took over Lewis Hamilton‘s car in Mexico City, but the name of the substitute for Abu Dhabi is still unknown. It is clear, however, that Hamilton is once again due to hand over his car.
