Each Formula 1 team needs to satisfy the rule of running a ‘rookie’ driver twice in each of its cars during a season.
This practice usually intensifies as the year goes on, with teams reluctant to deny their main drivers an hour of running early in the season when still getting used to their new cars.
But Sakhir having been used for pre-season testing just over a month ago and therefore pretty familiar to the regular drivers in their 2025 cars, and the daytime first Friday session not that relevant to the evening qualifying and race timeslots, there's a flurry of rookie driver substitutions this weekend.
The list is headlined by Ferrari protege Dino Beganovic having his first outing an an official F1 session.
He's joined by fellow junior racers Ayumu Iwasa at Red Bull, Luke Browning at Williams and Frederik Vesti at Mercedes.
Bahrain FP1 change list
McLaren: None
Mercedes: Vesti in for Russell
Red Bull: Iwasa in for Verstappen
Ferrari: Beganovic in for Leclerc
Williams: Browning in for Sainz
Haas: Hirakawa in for Bearman
Aston Martin: Drugovich in for Alonso
Racing Bulls: None
Sauber: None
Alpine: None
Ryo Hirakawa makes his second FP1 appearance in a week, but for a different team - following his surprise move from Alpine to Haas. And Aston Martin gives its long-time reserve and 2022 Formula 2 champion Felipe Drugovich another run.
Rookies are defined as any driver with no more than one grand prix start to their name. So Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) and Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) all ticked off the rookie requirements for their cars in Australia and China.
As Ollie Bearman (Haas) already started three grands prix last year, he doesn't count, while Alpine rookie Jack Doohan only counted for Australia because he made his F1 debut in Abu Dhabi last year.
2025 FP1 rookie runs so far
McLaren (0)
Ferrari (1)
Dino Beganovic - Bahrain
Red Bull (1)
Ayumu Iwasa - Bahrain
Mercedes (3)
Kimi Antonelli - Australia, China
Frederick Vesti - Bahrain
Aston Martin (1)
Felipe Drugovich - Bahrain
Alpine (2)
Jack Doohan - Australia
Ryo Hirakawa - Japan
Haas (1)
Ryo Hirakawa - Bahrain
Racing Bulls (2)
Isack Hadjar - Australia, China
Williams (1)
Luke Browning - Bahrain
Sauber (2)
Gabriel Bortoleto - Australia, China
