LEWIS HAMILTON will drive with a new team-mate at the Bahrain Grand Prix, it has been revealed.
are one of six teams who are using the next Formula One race to fulfil a little known rule.
Instead of , 40-year-old will instead partner 21-year-old Swedish driver Dino Beganovic for Free Practice One.
Likewise, Red Bull will also bring a new driver to their lineup for the Friday session.
Fresh off of his win at the Japanese Grand Prix, will give way to Japanese F2 star Ayumu Iwasa for the session.
It means Yuki Tsunoda, who had a tough first race with Red Bull after swapping with , will have his third team-mate of the season – even though this is only for one session.
, Aston Martin, Haas and Williams have also announced they will be running a rookie driver, with , , and respectively all stepping down.
Russell is giving up his seat for Danish youngster Frederik Vesti, while former F2 champion Felipe Drugovich is replacing Alonso.
Bearman, only a rookie this season himself, is giving up his seat to Ryo Hirakawa and Sainz will cede his seat to British racer Luke Browning.
The sweeping changes come as part of a requirement for all F1 teams to run rookies – drivers with fewer than two Grand Prix to their name – at least twice in each of their cars in practice sessions this season.
Teams have had to run a rookie in at least once in each of their cars in FP1 since 2022, with this season seeing the requirement doubled.
Alpine already completed one of these mandatory runs last weekend when RyoHirakawa ran in place of Jack Doohan – a contributing factor to
The reason for Bahrain being such a popular choice for rookie running is due to the known quantities of it.
Teams already have lots of data from the track after pre-season testing was completed at the Sakhir circuit.
The Middle East race also represents the first race weekend of the season where UK fans will not have to be out of bed early on Sunday morning.
Instead, the Bahrain race will take place at 4pm UK time, with qualifying on Saturday running from 5pm.
‘s leads the World Drivers Championship from Verstappen by a single point after the
