F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Ferrari hands Shwartzman FP1 debut at US Grand Prix

Ferrari junior Robert Shwartzman will make his official F1 debut at next month's US Grand Prix when the Israeli-Russian driver takes part in FP1 with the Scuderia.

Shwartzman's opportunity comes as part of F1 teams' mandatory need to run a young driver in at least two practice sessions this season.

Ferrari has designated the 23-year-old as its young hopeful in both of those sessions but the Italian outfit has yet to decide where Shwartzman's second outing will take place.

©Ferrari

Shwartzman has enjoyed several tests onboard older-spec Ferrari F1 machinery at Fiorano while he also ran with Haas at last year's post-season test in Abu Dhabi.

Only a handful of teams ran young drivers in FP1 during the first part of the F1 season. With six races to go, outfits are now ramping up their young driver FP1 programmes.

Williams, which ran Nyck de Vries in the opening practice session at Barcelona, will complete its FP1 duties at The Circuit of the Americas with American driver Logan Sargeant.

McLaren is expected to entrust its MCL36 car at an upcoming FP1 - perhaps also at Austin - to Colton Herta, but the papaya squad also has Pato O'Ward and Alex Palou under contract for its testing programme.

Furthermore, Herta has been penciled in by Alpine for a private test at the Hungaroring that is scheduled to take place later this month ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix.

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Michael Delaney

Recent Posts

Antonelli: ‘Still a long way to reach Verstappen and Norris’ level’

Kimi Antonelli is sitting comfortably at the top of Formula 1’s 2026 Drivers’ Championship standings,…

10 hours ago

Szafnauer: Root cause of Aston Martin ‘mess’ planted five years ago

Former Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer has delivered a stinging verdict on Team Silverstone's…

12 hours ago

Hadjar details how he unlocked his consistency at Red Bull

Isack Hadjar believes one of his biggest challenges during his first season with Red Bull…

13 hours ago

Four classic German GP winners at the Nürburgring on this day

Down the years, August 4th has seen several German Grand Prix races held at the…

15 hours ago

Gasly: Alpine’s Dutch GP upgrade ‘critical’ for F1 midfield fight

Pierre Gasly believes Alpine’s upcoming Dutch Grand Prix upgrade package will be “critical” to the…

16 hours ago

Piastri reveals hidden gains behind mixed first half of 2026

Oscar Piastri may not have the results to show for his efforts in 2026, but…

17 hours ago