Five rookies in Hungary
In the first half of this championship, the Catalan and Austrian GPs were the ones that saw the largest number of rookies on track. As per regulations, each team has the obligation to field a rookie driver in at least four sessions (strictly the FP1), with the official drivers having to hand over their car to young talents at least twice. On the occasion of the Hungarian GP, scheduled for this weekend, there will be some new announcements from various teams.
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Haas and Alpine
The first team to have made a substitution official was Haas, which for the second time in this championship has promoted Ryo Hirakawa. The Japanese driver, two-time Endurance world champion and winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022, had already taken part in the FP1 of the Austrian GP, but in that case in place of Esteban Ocon.
This time, however, the experienced Japanese driver will replace Oliver Bearman. In the course of this championship, Alpine had not fielded any rookies, something it will do for the first time at the Hungaroring with Paul Aron: the Estonian, who had actually participated in the FP1s in Barcelona and Austria with Audi, will replace Franco Colapinto.
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The return of Fornaroli
In the Hungarian FP1s, the ‘Tricolore’ will also be present: Italy will indeed be represented by Leonardo Fornaroli, third driver for McLaren. The Piacenza native, after having had his first absolute experience in the Catalan FP1s in place of reigning world champion Lando Norris, will return to the track on Friday, this time in place of Oscar Piastri. Mercedes has again announced its reserve driver for this weekend: Frederik Vesti.
Already participating this year in the same FP1s in Spain and four others in the previous two years, the Brackley team initially had not clarified which driver would have to give up their car to the 24-year-old, only to later communicate Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s stay in the pits. Finally, a second experience in an official F1 session for Colton Herta: the former IndyCar driver and current test driver for Cadillac, will take Valtteri Bottas’s place in a weekend that will already see him busy in the F2 championship.
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