Shwartzman will be at the controls of one of the F1-75s owned by Charles Leclerc or Carlos Sainz in Friday practice at the Circuit of the Americas, and thus the Italian team will comply with the line-up of fielding a rookie in two FP1 sessions .
Ferrari race director Laurent Mekies previously revealed that Shwartzman, who turns 23 today, would be chosen for both sessions, with the circuit for his second FP1 still to be decided.
“For us it is Robert Shwartzman who will do our two FP1s,” said Mekies at the last Hungarian GP. “We haven’t decided exactly what events they will be at.”
“We wouldn’t pick races like Singapore or races where the regular drivers need more running time. I don’t think we’ll have any problem doing it during one of the weekends where we have Pirelli testing.
Shwartzman was runner-up to Prema teammate Oscar Piastri in last year’s Formula 2 championship after taking the Formula 3 crown in 2019.
Shwartzman did not return to Formula 2 this year, instead taking on the role of one of Ferrari’s test drivers, assisting the team in the simulator.
He also has experience with ‘real’ F1 cars, testing both the Ferrari SF21 and Haas VF-21 at the Abu Dhabi young drivers test last December.
Having exchanged his Russian license for an Israeli one, the Tel Aviv -born Shwartzman is eligible to enter F1 grands prix.
Logan Sargeant will participate in that same session with Williams, also making his F1 debut.
The Formula 2 driver, who currently sits third in the standings with Carlin , joined the Williams Academy last October and had his first taste of an F1 car when he took part in the F1 post-season tests. F1 in Abu Dhabi.
Sargeant will take the wheel of Nicholas Latifi’s FW44 for the 60-minute session, marking Williams’ second rookie FP1 this year, after Nyck de Vries contested for the team in Barcelona.
He will become the first American since Alexander Rossi in 2015 to participate in an F1 world session.
It remains to be seen if McLaren tester and AlphaTauri target Colton Herta will join Shwartzman in FP1 at Circuit of the Americas.
The IndyCar driver is going to test for Alpine at the Hungaroring as part of his preparation for a possible arrival in F1.
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