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2026 F1 Barcelona Grand Prix

The F1 drivers taking part in Barcelona FP1

A number of rookie drivers will jump behind the wheel of F1 cars this weekend at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.

Herta
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A large number of rookie drivers will take part in free practice one this weekend in Barcelona as teams hand the F1 hopefuls valuable experience at a grand prix.

Each full-time driver in the F1 championship is required to give up their seat twice during a season for practice, meaning four FP1 outings are generated per season within a team.

With the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya being a track that the drivers have vast experience on, it lends itself as a natural choice for one of the appearances.

Championship leader Kimi Antonelli will step aside at Mercedes in favour of Frederik Vesti, who has been handed his fifth FP1 appearance with the team.

Reigning F1 champion Lando Norris will watch on as Leonardo Fornaroli is handed his debut at McLaren.

Ayumu Iwasa will make an appearance at Red Bull, Luke Browning will step behind the wheel at Williams, and Paul Aron has been handed another appearance with Audi.

Fornaroli will not be the only driver making his grand prix weekend debut as American Colton Herta jumps into the Cadillac as he seeks to convince the team he is worthy of a full-time drive.

At Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton will sit out the session as Dino Beganovic has been handed an opportunity.

See the rookies taking part in Barcelona FP1 this weekend below! The list will be updated as more teams confirm their drivers.

Rookie drivers at Barcelona FP1

The F1 drivers taking part in Barcelona FP1
Driver Team Replaces
Leonardo Fornaroli McLaren Lando Norris
Frederik Vesti Mercedes Kimi Antonelli
Ayumu Iwasa Red Bull Isack Hadjar
Dino Beganovic Ferrari Lewis Hamilton
Luke Browning Williams Alex Albon
Paul Aron Audi Nico Hulkenberg
Colton Herta Cadillac Sergio Perez

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F1 calendar 2026
Race Date
esp Barcelona GP 14 Jun 2026
aut Austrian GP 28 Jun 2026
gbr British GP 05 Jul 2026
bel Belgian GP 19 Jul 2026
hun Hungarian GP 26 Jul 2026
nld Dutch GP 23 Aug 2026
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LATEST Lewis Hamilton to miss Barcelona FP1 as replacement named