Hadjar and Pourchaire among five F2 drivers on-track for F1 practice in Mexico

Formula 1

Posted on

| Written by

Five Formula 2 drivers will take part in Formula 1’s opening practice session for the Mexican Grand Prix.

Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free

Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri have confirmed two F2 drivers will represent them in the hour of practice at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez Friday.

Isack Hadjar will make his debut in an F1 practice session for AlphaTauri. The Red Bull junior will take over from Yuki Tsunoda. The session will be Hadjar’s first ever run in an F1 car as he is yet to complete a private test with Red Bull.

Alfa Romeo have confirmed Theo Pourchaire will drive for them again this weekend, in Valtteri Bottas’ car. The current F2 points leader made his F1 practice debut at the Circuit of the Americas last year.

They will share the track with three their F2 rivals. Frederik Vesti, Pourchaire’s closest rival at the top of the F2 table, will drive for Mercedes. Alpine reserve Jack Doohan, currently fourth in the F2 standings, will drive for them as he did at the same track 12 months ago. Ferrari have loaned out their junior driver Oliver Bearman to Haas for the Friday session.

Theo Pourchaire, Alfa Romeo, Circuit of the Americas, 2022
Pourchaire tested for Alfa Romeo last year
F2 rookie Hadjar lies 14th in the F2 standings. The 19-year-old has picked up one podium and two other top-five finishes from his first 24 races in the series. He is in contention to finish the year as high as 11th in the standings. He is behind five other Red Bull juniors who have all been overlooked so far this season when it comes to F1 practice call-ups, including Dennis Hauger who recently announced his coming departure from the scheme.

Hadjar won four races in the French Formula 4 championship on his way up the single-seater ladder to F2, won on the streets of Monaco in the Formula Regional European Championship and claimed three victories en route to fourth in the FIA Formula 3 standings last year.

With Hadjar’s appearance, AlphaTauri will fulfil their requirement under F1’s rules to run one rookie in each of their cars. They have already run two sufficiently inexperienced drivers – Nyck de Vries and Liam Lawson – in the car now occupied by Daniel Ricciardo.

Red Bull, however, still need to hand over each of their two cars to a driver with fewer than three F1 starts to their name for a practice session before the season ends.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2023 Mexican Grand Prix

Browse all 2023 Mexican Grand Prix articles

Author information

Ida Wood
Often found in junior single-seater paddocks around Europe doing journalism and television commentary, or dabbling in teaching photography back in the UK. Currently based...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

12 comments on “Hadjar and Pourchaire among five F2 drivers on-track for F1 practice in Mexico”

  1. Miane
    25th October 2023, 16:00

    I can’t understand why Marko rates Hadjar so much after his terrible rookie season.

    1. Dex
      25th October 2023, 18:09

      I guess they just needed to place someone in that car because of the rules. Their choice is kinda limited (in quality, definitely not in quantity). Iwasa really disappointed me with his progression this season, but I’d still rate him higher than this kid (he had ups and downs, not just downs).

      1. Miane
        25th October 2023, 18:26

        Iwasa don’t have a super license, he would need 300km in a private test.

    2. Profile Photo

      Shimks (@shimks)
      26th October 2023, 21:36

      Hadjar was fantastic in the first half of the 2022 F3 season – the most exciting driver to watch, I would say, with his superb overtakes. He looked like he might win the championship. But he then seemed to completely bottle it (English slang meaning when someone loses their nerve or courage, and backs out of a situation or action). There is a very talented driver in there waiting to break out.

  2. Jimmy Cliff
    25th October 2023, 16:34

    “Red Bull, however, still need to hand over each of their two cars to a driver with fewer than three F1 starts to their name for a practice session before the season ends.”

    On another website it was mentioned that Red Bull will hand over both cars at same time during FP1 of Abu Dhabi.
    * Formula E champion Jake Dennis
    * Isack Hadjar

  3. Profile Photo

    Zann (@zann)
    25th October 2023, 16:45

    Theo Pourchaire is the most fun, allons-y!

  4. Profile Photo

    Jere (@jerejj)
    25th October 2023, 18:10

    Surely Lawson’s running in Monza’s FP1 fulfilled AT’s minimum for this season if not yet FP3 in Zandvoort (in case only FP1’s count rather than any given practice session), as he only had a single race start by that point with two being the upper limit, so surprising that Hadjar will take practice time away from Tsunoda rather than drive in the RB19 as the main team still hasn’t even partly fulfilled their equivalent 2023 minimum.

    1. Profile Photo

      Jere (@jerejj)
      25th October 2023, 18:17

      FP1s

    2. Miane
      25th October 2023, 18:26

      It’s one rookie per car. So Tsunoda would need to lost a FP1 at some point.

      1. Profile Photo

        Jere (@jerejj)
        25th October 2023, 21:37

        Or two FP1s

  5. Sander
    27th October 2023, 21:55

    @jerejj Doesn’t each car needs to be handed over at least once? They can let a rookie have Tsunodas car every FP1, but at some point Ric has to give up his seat for an hour as well

    1. Profile Photo

      Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
      27th October 2023, 23:05

      Ricciardo’s car has already been driven by two drivers who qualified as rookies under the rules: De Vries and Lawson.

Comments are closed.