Ferrari has confirmed that Charles Leclerc will sit out the opening practice session at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

That is because opportunity knocks for Ferrari Driver Academy star Dino Beganovic, who faces a very busy race weekend in Bahrain as he pulls double duty.

Ferrari swap Leclerc for Beganovic in Bahrain FP1

F1 2025 resumes next weekend with the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, but Ferrari is already looking ahead to the round which follows in Bahrain, having confirmed that their junior driver Beganovic will make his F1 race weekend debut, driving the SF-25 in the opening Bahrain Grand Prix practice session.

With Leclerc the driver to watch from the sidelines on this occasion, it means Beganovic will have seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton as his team-mate for that session.

A key rule change in F1 2025 in regards to rookie practice sessions is that the number has doubled from last year. Previously, each driver was required to miss one session to give a rookie that hour of practice time in an F1 car, but from this year, each driver must now do that twice.

That means a grand total of four FP1 rookie driver appearances will be seen per team across the F1 2025 campaign.

In terms of eligibility for these sessions, a rookie driver is one who has no more than two grand prix starts to their name.

Ferrari head-to-head standings so far in F1 2025

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

By this stage, the 21-year-old Swede Beganovic is a veteran of the Ferrari Driver Academy, having first linked-up with the Scuderia in 2020 and impressing since.

The 2022 Formula Regional European Champion, Beganovic became a two-time race winner in Formula 3, spending two years in the series as a Ferrari-backed driver, before making an immediate impact in his step up to Formula 2 late last year, making the podium in Abu Dhabi and never finishing outside the top 10 in his four races.

After that breakthrough with DAMS, Beganovic has switched to Hitech for the 2025 F2 campaign, and will be racing with the team in Bahrain alongside his huge Ferrari FP1 opportunity.

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