Max Verstappen is expected to hand over his Red Bull to Ayumu Iwasa for the first free practice session at this weekend's Mexico City Grand Prix, RacingNews365 understands.
Although it has yet to be confirmed whether it will definitely be Verstappen, the anticipation is that Isack Hadjar will run in all three hours of practice at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in the sister RB22.
The Mexico City Grand Prix is a customary place for teams to run a rookie in practice, with Freddie Slater, Jak Crawford, Luke Browning and Fred Vesti all already announced for Audi, Aston Martin, Williams and Mercedes, respectively.
Iwasa has taken over the cockpit at Red Bull for FP1 sessions twice already this season, one time in each of the regular drivers' cars, which means both Verstappen and Hadjar must step aside once more to satisfy the FIA-mandated rookie replacement criteria.
In fact, this will be the Japanese driver's fourth run of the year, having deputised at Racing Bulls in FP1 at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Iwasa, who finished fourth in the F2 championship in 2023 and is the reigning Super Formula champion, has extensive experience from previous campaigns, too, having taken part in three FP1s last season and two the one before.
Also interesting:
Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes, Sam Coop and Nick Golding as they look back on the United States GP and look ahead to Mexico City! Red Bull's return of gearbox gremlins is a lead discussion, as is Kimi Antonelli being just days away from becoming world champion.
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