Only seven of the 20 mandatory Friday assignments have been completed so far: When will the rest follow and who will be fielded by the teams?
In the 2024 Formula 1 season, every team will still have to put a rookie who has completed two Grands Prix or fewer in their career behind the wheel in two Friday practice sessions. But which team still has to fulfill its obligation and in which races could the youngsters be used?
In fact, two teams have already done their homework for this year: Haas and Alpine. At Alpine, young driver Jack Doohan had the opportunity to replace each of the regular drivers once in Montreal and Silverstone, and at Haas Oliver Bearman has already taken the wheel four times.
In addition, Red Bull, Racing Bulls and Williams have already swapped drivers at least once in practice: Isack Hadjar replaced Sergio Perez at Silverstone, Ayumu Iwasa got to drive for Daniel Ricciardo at the home race in Japan and Franco Colapinto sat in the car for Logan Sargeant at Silverstone.
This means that seven of the 20 regular drivers have already sat out the summer break. By comparison, not a single Friday driver tested during the same period last year.
However, this also means that 13 training sessions still have to take place in the remaining ten races
When are the races planned?
The only thing that is certain so far is that Oliver Bearman will get two more chances in Mexico and Abu Dhabi, but these were already fixed before the season in preparation for his promotion to regular driver in 2025 and are no longer necessary for the mandatory fulfillment anyway.
All other teams still have to decide on which dates they want to free up their regular cockpits. However, Mexico and Abu Dhabi will once again be the most likely candidates. In 2023, the most Friday drivers raced on these two tracks: five in Mexico and even ten in Abu Dhabi
McLaren had fielded IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward in 2022 and 2023, who would be the logical candidate again in his native Mexico. Formula 3 champion Gabriel Bortoleto could probably also get a chance, even if his home race in Brazil is a sprint weekend.
At Aston Martin, the decision will be between Felipe Drugovich and Jak Crawford, at Sauber between reserve driver Theo Pourchaire (previously always the team’s Friday driver) and Junior Zane Maloney. And after Colapinto, Williams is also likely to give its second junior Zak O’Sullivan a training session.
The Friday rule will continue to apply next year, as it is also anchored in the Sporting Regulations for 2025.