Lewis Hamilton replaced by Ferrari Le Mans winner at Mexican GP

Lewis Hamilton will be able to rest his aging body for a little bit longer in the second half of the current pair of back-to-back F1 races, with the seven-time champion set to sit out FP1 this Friday.

Teams have made the hop across the border from Texas to Mexico for this weekend's Mexican Grand Prix, with Ferrari looking to build on their best weekend in months last time out at COTA.

Hamilton equalled his best finish of the season with fourth at the US Grand Prix, with Leclerc spending much of the race battling Lando Norris for second – ultimately finishing behind the Brit in third.

The 40-year-old Scuderia star won't be behind the wheel for the first session of the weekend at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez though, being replaced with an experienced sports car driver.

Fuoco gets the call for FP1

Ferrari World Endurance Championship driver Antonio Fuoco will be stepping into the No. 44 car instead, as part of the team's obligation to give over four practice sessions to rookie drivers over the course of the year.

Charles Leclerc has given up his own spot for Dino Beganovic in Bahrain and Austria, which means it's now Hamilton's turn to spend an hour on the sidelines hoping that he doesn't watch his red racing machine hurtling toward one of the unforgiving walls at the Mexican track.

2024 Le Mans winner Fuoco reacted to the news on Instagram, with a post captioned: "Got the call. Mexico see you on track for FP1. Let’s do this."

The 29-year-old's first taste of F1 action came more than a decade ago, stepping in for a two-day testing session at the Red Bull Ring in June 2015, and has hopped in for sporadic testing sessions in the intervening years.

Alongside WEC, Fuoco also serves as a development driver for the Ferrari F1 team, and drove at the post-season test at Yas Marina Circuit in 2021 and 2024.

The Italian joined Ferrari AF Corse for the 2023 WEC and partnered Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen, the two drivers he would go on to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans with in 2024.

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