Ferrari name Charles Leclerc stand-in for Bahrain Grand Prix as F1 debut confirmed

Formula 1 rules require teams to field young drivers in four first practice sessions over the course of the season, with Ferrari getting one of their out of the way early on

Ferrari will hand a Formula 1 debut to junior driver Dino Beganovic at the upcoming Bahrain Grand Prix. He will fill in for Charles Leclerc who will be sitting out the first practice session of the race weekend, the team has confirmed.

Beganovic, 21, has yet to take part in an official F1 session. But that will change when he takes to the Sakhir International Circuit in Leclerc's Ferrari machine next month as the Italians move to meet their young driver requirements for the season.

F1 rules require teams to run junior drivers in at least four practice sessions over the course of this season. That number has doubled compared to the previous requirement which was for at least two young driver runs per year.

Each car must be given to a driver who meets the requirements - they cannot have started more than two F1 Grands Prix - twice over the course of the campaign. That means Leclerc will have to sit out another practice session at some point in 2025, while Lewis Hamilton will also have to hand over his car twice.

Rookie drivers who are competing in the F1 championship count towards meeting those requirements. That means Mercedes will only have to put George Russell on standby twice as his team-mate Kimi Antonelli has already completed two FP1 sessions before he had started as many races.

Ferrari have moved to use one of their rookie slots early with this confirmation that Beganovic will drive for them in practice in Bahrain. The Swedish racer will this season complete a full Formula 2 season for the first time, having debuted at that level last year.

F2 will be a support event for the Bahrain Grand Prix and so Beganovic would already have been travelling to the Gulf country anyway to compete. His season got off to a rough start with zero points scored in either the sprint or the feature race in Melbourne earlier this month.

Teams are allowed to use the same driver for multiple FP1 sessions to meet their annual requirements, meaning this may not be Beganovic's last appearance in F1 this season. Fellow academy member Oliver Bearman races full-time for customer team Haas this season and was no longer eligible anyway having started three races in 2024.

Arthur Leclerc, Charles' younger brother, drove for the team alongside his elder sibling in Abu Dhabi last year. He remains a Ferrari development driver and so could be in line for another appearance this season.

Ferrari are unlikely to be the only team running a rookie in FP1 at the Bahrain event. It is a prime opportunity for many outfits to hand over cars to junior drivers given they already have lots of data on the track from pre-season testing, which took place at the same circuit, and the fact there is a generous amount of run-off at the side of the track which reduces the risk of a costly crash.