Robert Shwartzman lined up for Ferrari drive in FP1 at Austin

Robert Shwartzman will drive for Ferrari in FP1 at the US Grand Prix next month at the Circuit of the Americas.

The Scuderia, like every other team this year, is obliged to offer up two FP1 sessions for a rookie driver to take part in and get a feel for driving a Formula 1 car during a Grand Prix weekend.

Indeed, we’ve seen many teams look to use drivers from their academy programmes whilst Nyck de Vries has been a prominent fixture in these sessions this year, with him driving for Mercedes, Williams and Aston Martin thus far this campaign.

So far, Ferrari have not yet seen one of their young drivers get behind the wheel of the F1-75 in an FP1 run but, as we start to come towards the end of this season, it’s now been revealed that Shwartzman will get one of his two chances to drive the car at the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.

The team’s race director Laurent Mekies had already revealed earlier this season over the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend that it would be Shwartzman that gets the gig on both FP1 occasions this season but, at that time, he did not disclose the locations.

One remains unconfirmed, then, but the 22-year-old will now get his chance to show what he can do behind the wheel of a new-era Formula 1 car, with him turning 23 before the race in Austin comes around towards the end of October.

One of Charles Leclerc or Carlos Sainz will need to make way for Shwartzman, meanwhile, though that has not yet been decided on by the team either.

Shwartzman won Formula 3 back in 2019 whilst he also came close in 2021 to the Formula 2 title but was beaten to it by Oscar Piastri.

Piastri, of course, has now secured a chance in F1 for next season with him set to drive for McLaren, but it’s likely Shwartzman will have to