Charles Leclerc replaced at Austrian Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton gets new team-mate
Charles Leclerc's replacement has been confirmed.
Charles Leclerc will be replaced by Dino Beganovic at the Austrian Grand Prix, with the Swedish prospect taking part in FP1 for the second time this season. The 21-year-old also competed in the first practice session at the Bahrain Grand Prix earlier this year. Beganovic is one of the premier talents in the Ferrari driver academy ranks, and has taken up FP1 duties after Robert Shwartzman moved to IndyCar with PREMA Racing and Oliver Bearman moved into his new role with Haas.
Meanwhile, Antonio Giovinazzi and Zhou Guanyu are carrying out test and reserve duties in the background for Fred Vasseur's team. The Linkoping-born racer stepped up to Formula Two level this year after back-to-back sixth-place finishes in Formula Three, but Beganovic has found the running much tougher in 2025. Heading into the upcoming round in Austria, the Swede sits 10th in the Drivers' Championship standings with only three top-10 finishes to his name.
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Beganovic already replaced Leclerc in Bahrain and took plenty of inspiration from sharing the track with seven-time world champion team-mate Hamilton. “I was not that nervous before the FP1,” he revealed after the weekend in Sakhir.
“I was a lot more nervous for my first time driving the car in January. But the day before, I did get a little nervous, only because I was in the meeting with all the people that work at Ferrari, and obviously Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. I'm taking Charles' place, and I'm driving next to Lewis Hamilton, in a Ferrari.
"If you told me six months ago I would be doing that, in my deepest moments in F3, I would have never believed that. Everything can change very quickly, and my lock screen is amazing, it's me and Lewis next to each other on track. Also, my first time driving in an official F1 session, with Ferrari, it's not any other team, it's Ferrari, with a red suit, it was just really special.”
While Beganovic will be looking to prove his worth in the SF-25 amid a challenging F2 campaign, the 21-year-old will be desperate to avoid setting Ferrari back with a crash or messy session. The Scuderia are under the microscope following an underwhelming start to their season.
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"The main issue is to do a good usage of the tyre first, and to understand the tyres and to choose the good one for quali," Vasseur said, looking ahead to Sunday's race. "The exercise is quite difficult."
He went on to add: "I think there is much more than between the cars. It means that it doesn't matter how the car is performing; if the team is doing a very good job on the tyres, they will be in front. It's true this weekend [in Canada], it was true in Monaco, it was true in Imola, and it is like it is, and it will be like this until the end of the season. But it's the same for everybody, and we have to do a better job."
