Ferrari Driver Academy member Dino Beganovic will make his debut in an official Formula 1 practice session next month.
The team confirmed its 21-year-old junior driver will appear in first practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix. He will take over Charles Leclerc’s car for the 60-minute session at the Bahrain International Circuit.
F1 teams are required to give twice as many practice opportunities to inexperienced drivers this year compared to last. They must run a driver who has started no more than two grands prix during a first practice session in each of their cars over the course of the season.
Each team will therefore run junior drivers on at least four occasions. They may be F1 drivers who are currently active in the series, which applies to Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Alpine’s Jack Doohan.
Beganovic has been a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy since 2022. He won the Formula Regional European championship that year, then moved up to Formula 3 and graduated to Formula 2 at the end of last year. He began his first full season in F2 with Hitech in Australia and will also race in the support event in Bahrain.
Last year Ferrari ran Oliver Bearman and Arthur Leclerc – younger brother of Charles – as its junior drivers in practice sessions. Bearman is now racing full-time in F1 for Haas.
Robert Shwartzman, Ferrari’s former junior driver who made two appearances in practice for Ferrari power unit customer Sauber, now races in IndyCar.
The Bahrain round is likely to prove a popular venue for teams to conduct practice driver runs as it takes place on a permanent circuit with ample run-off, reducing the likelihood of the cars incurring damage. The event is a regular round with a full complement of three practice sessions and running is unlikely to be disrupted by rain. Teams also have ample testing data from the track as it was the venue for pre-season testing last month.
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