Lewis Hamilton will be replaced by Antonio Fuoco in the first practice session at the Mexican Grand Prix later this week. Ferrari announced the change in the aftermath of the US Grand Prix at the weekend.
Hamilton began his Ferrari career at the start of the year after 12 years with Mercedes, where he won six of his seven world titles. The Briton is currently sixth in the Drivers’ Championship standings and is yet to claim a podium place for the Italian team. But he was in decent form at the Circuit of the Americas at the weekend as he finished fourth in the Sprint race and fourth in the main Grand Prix.
As part of the current F1 regulations, teams are required to field a rookie driver in a minimum of two FP1 sessions per car every season.
A rookie driver is described as someone who hasn’t started more than two Grands Prix throughout their career, with Fuoco yet to feature on an official F1 race weekend.
Fuoco was part of Ferrari’s junior scheme until 2018 and has worked as a Scuderia simulator and development driver in recent years. The 29-year-old Italian also tasted success for Ferrari when he won the Le Mans 24 Hours race with the team in 2024.
Hamilton is yet to sit out an FP1 session since the campaign began, while his team-mate Charles Leclerc has already been replaced on two occasions.
Ferrari announced on X (formerly Twitter): .@Anto_Fuoco will be kicking off the Mexico City GP weekend in FP1!”
And Fuoco confirmed his call-up in his own post of social media as he penned: “Got the call. Mexico see you on track for FP1 Let’s do this.”
Meanwhile, Mercedes star George Russell will be replaced by Fred Vesti in FP1, while the seat of four-time world champion Max Verstappen will be occupied by Red Bull starlet Arvid Lindblad during the same session.
Hamilton was in a positive mood following his display in the States. And after the Grand Prix, he explained: “I’m finally feeling like I’m on top of the car.
“I think we still have some improvements we could make. We can definitely extract more, particularly on my side, because qualifying wasn’t as good as I had hoped and the start wasn’t great.
“There are always areas to improve, but it’s positive going into the next race, so I hope we can have an even better weekend.”
FP1 in Mexico is due to get underway at 7.30pm (BST) on Friday, with FP2 commencing at 11pm. Qualifying begins at 10pm on Saturday following a third practice session, with the main race starting at 8pm (GMT) on Sunday.