Charles Leclerc embraces his brother Arthur Leclerc — Photo: © IMAGO

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc's brother and a ZERO point rookie: Every Abu Dhabi GP driver swap

There are nine rookie drivers taking to the F1 grid

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Thursday 4 December 2025 23:01

The 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is set to see NINE rookies on the grid, during FP1 at the Yas Marina Circuit.

It's the final race of the season in F1 this weekend, and we are set to see a showdown between Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen for the title.

Meanwhile, many teams are squabbling for position in the constructors' championship, including Mercedes and Red Bull for second, and Racing Bulls, Haas, and Aston Martin for sixth.

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Amid all of this, however, is one last attempt for the teams to conform to F1 rookie driver rules for 2025, and that means that FP1 will be full of rookies taking the places of some of the most experienced F1 drivers. There will be nine rookies on the grid in total.

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, for example, will miss out as F1 session debutant Cian Shields takes over for FP1, while the sport's most successful driver Lewis Hamilton will make way for Arthur Leclerc, the brother of his team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Lindblad is expected to be Red Bull's next 'big thing', and has broken records in multiple junior series, becoming the youngest winner in F3 history in 2024 at just 16 years old with a victory in the Bahrain Sprint, and becoming the youngest winner in F2 history at 17 years old in Saudi Arabia earlier this year.

While 21-year-old Isack Hadjar has recently been promoted up into Red Bull for 2026, Lindblad may well be the next on that production line, and with Verstappen's future post-2026 up in the air, he could well be in the main team before you know it.

The use of rookies in FP1 in Abu Dhabi is all part of F1's rookie driver rules for 2025, which state that teams have to place rookies in each of their cars at least twice per season.

Mercedes and Sauber have already fulfilled that quota, but the other eight teams have not and are doing it on the final race weekend of the season, with Aston Martin swapping out both drivers for FP1.

Every FP1 driver swap at 2025 Abu Dhabi GP

FP1 Driver	Replacing	Team
Pato O'Ward	Oscar Piastri	McLaren
Arvid Lindblad	Yuki Tsunoda	Red Bull
Arthur Leclerc	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari
Luke Browning	Alex Albon	Williams
Ayumu Iwasa	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls
Cian Shields	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin
Jak Crawford	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin
Ryo Hirakawa	Esteban Ocon	Haas
Paul Aron	Pierre Gasly	Alpine