Horner confirms World Champion for Red Bull rookie session

Christian Horner has confirmed that Red Bull will run Formula E World Champion Jake Dennis and Formula 2 racer Isack Hadjar in its mandatory rookie driver sessions in Abu Dhabi.

Since the start of 2022, every team must run one rookie driver - counted as those who have started two Grands Prix or less - in place of a regular race driver in each car.

In first practice for the Mexico City Grand Prix, five teams had a rookie driver in including Mercedes with Frederik Vesti and Haas with Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman.

Red Bull is yet to run a rookie driver with the only remaining chance for the team to do so now coming in the finale in Abu Dhabi owing to Brazil being a Sprint event with just one practice session, and Las Vegas being an entirely new circuit.

Speaking to media including RacingNews365, Horner confirmed Red Bull's intention to swap out both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in an unusual situation of fulfilling the requirement for both cars at the same time.

"We are planning to do it in Abu Dhabi in the last standard race of the year," Horner said.

"We've got quite a bit of data and in the heat of the day, that first session in Abu Dhabi tends to have no great deal in car set-up value, so that's when we're going to elect to put both rookie drivers in our cars.

"Jake Dennis is going to be driving one of the cars, and Isaac will be in the other car - it was good to see him put in a strong performance for [AlphaTauri in Mexico FP1]."

The run out will be Hadjar's second of the season after driving in place of Yuki Tsunoda during the opening practice at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.