Red Bull has announced that Ayumu Iwasa is to deputise for Max Verstappen in the first practice session of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Japanese racer Iwasa will take over Verstappen's RB21 for the opening practice session of the Bahrain weekend in the latest announcement of a rookie driver filling in for a regular race driver.
The reason behind this is that FP1 in Bahrain is one of the most unrepresentative sessions of the year as it is held in the daytime with the key sessions of FP2, qualifying and the race all held in the cooler conditions of night.
As such, with every regular race driver now mandated to hand over their car twice during the season to a rookie driver for an FP1 session, Verstappen and Red Bull have decided that the first session will be in Bahrain.
The world champion will be back in the car for Free Practice 2 and the remainder of the weekend.
The news is the sixth confirmed replacement for FP1 in Bahrain, with Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, Haas, Aston Martin, and Williams all set to fulfil one of their four required sessions in Sakhir.
Mercedes actually will have completed three of the four required sessions by the time Fred Vesti steps in for George Russell, with Kimi Antonelli's FP1 outings in Australia and China counting for his two mandated sessions during his rookie season.
Iwasa has previously driven for Racing Bulls in FP1 at the 2024 Japanese and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix, and also in the post-Abu Dhabi test, but is set to make his Red Bull debut with the outing.
Full list of FP1 replacement drivers in Bahrain
| Young driver | Regular driver | Team |
|---|---|---|
| Felipe Drugovich | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin |
| Ayumu Iwasa | Max Verstappen | Red Bull |
| Fred Vesti | George Russell | Mercedes |
| Dino Beganovic | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari |
| Luke Browning | Carlos Sainz | Williams |
| Ryo Hirakawa | Ollie Bearman | Haas |
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