Ferrari have announced a driver change ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix.

After a short break following the Canadian Grand Prix, Formula 1 will return this weekend around the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria.

Heading into the latest race weekend, McLaren star Oscar Piastri leads the world championship with 198 points, 22 ahead of teammate Lando Norris.

Meanwhile, reigning world champion Max Verstappen trails Piastri by 43 points.

Ahead of the weekend, Ferrari have announced that Charles Leclerc will be replaced for the first practice session.

Instead, academy product Dino Beganovic will be driving the SF-25 during FP1.

It is mandatory that F1 teams allow their rookies to take part in four FP1 sessions during the course of a season.

After the Austrian Grand Prix, the Scuderia will have satisfied half of the required rookie sessions, with the other two set to be in Lewis Hamilton’s car.

Taking to social media, Ferrari wrote: “A big moment in red @DinoBeganovic4 will get back behind the wheel of Charles’ car for FP1 in Spielberg.”

Back in April, Beganovic, 21, drove Leclerc’s car for FP1 at the Bahrain Grand Prix and is currently 10th in the F2 standings.

Aside from Ferrari, McLaren will also put a rookie in the car for FP1.

The championship leaders have confirmed that youngster Alex Dunne will replace Norris for the 60-minute-long session.

Dunne, 19, will become the first Irish driver in 22 years to take part in an F1 Grand Prix weekend.

He said: “It’s an amazing opportunity to be able to drive during FP1 in Austria. I’m really looking forward to getting laps in behind the wheel of the MCL39 and supporting the team with the set-up for the race weekend ahead.

“I’ve been preparing well for the sessions, taking part in testing of previous cars tests in the MCL60 and spending time on the simulator, which has been a fantastic learning experience.”

The highly-anticipated F1 film will be released to UK audiences on June 25 and fans will catch a glimpse of Brad Pitt alongside their favourite drivers – but not everyone made the cut.

Pitt, 61, plays a character named Sonny Hayes, who was once one of the best drivers in F1 before he was involved in a horrific crash, which saw his life take a negative turn.

However, 30 years on, he gets called up to a failing F1 team who beg him to return to action at the top of the sport.

The storyline takes Hayes to all four corners of the globe as he competes in various F1 Grand Prix events.

For now, we’ll leave the plot there as we know some of you will not want the film spoiled before you’ve even had the chance to watch it.

But what we can tell you is which real-life F1 drivers make an appearance during the movie.

Sergio Perez, Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Kevin Magnussen, Nico Hulkenberg, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Logan Sargeant, Alex Albon, Zhou Guanyu, Valtteri Bottas, Yuki Tsunoda, Nyck de Vries, Daniel Ricciardo, Liam Lawson and Max Verstappen all feature, but five drivers missed out.

The unlucky drivers were this season’s rookies – Franco Colapinto, Kimi Antonelli, Isack Hadjar, Gabriel Bortoleto and Oliver Bearman – who were not part of the cohort of drivers when the filming took place during 2023 and 2024 Grand Prix weekends.

Speaking at New York’s premiere of the film earlier this week, Pitt praised the drivers’ participation in the movie.

“The teams and the drivers, everyone opened their doors for us and [they] are a big part of this movie,” Pitt said via F1.com.

“The hardest thing was to develop a story,” he added.

“The sport is so revered and there’s so many people that are quite knowledgeable about it, and then there’s so many people who haven’t seen it yet.

“And to try to thread this needle where we’re not dumbing it down to those in the know, but it’s an invitation and explanation for those who have not been around this sport before, was really the most difficult thing of it all, and I think we did a pretty damn good job.”

Ferrari have announced that 21-year-old Formula 2 star Dino Beganovic will replace Charles Leclerc for practice one at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

It’s been an extremely tough start to the season for the Scuderia, with a subpar opening weekend in Australia followed by a double disqualification in China.

The Italian team were joint favourites for the 2025 F1 constructors title alongside McLaren, but Ferrari already sit 61 points behind after just two races.

Despite their rocky start Ferrari have chosen to give an early opportunity to one of their academy products, with Swedish star Beganovic confirmed for Bahrain.

Every season each F1 driver must vacate their seat for one FP1 session, as teams are required to field a rookie driver who hasn’t yet completed more than two F1 races.

In this instance it will be Leclerc who hands over his keys as opposed to Lewis Hamilton, who himself is also getting to grips with the Ferrari.

In a statement on their website, Ferrari confirmed the decision to hand the opportunity to the F2 star.

The statement read: “Dino Beganovic is going to have a busy weekend in Bahrain: the 21 year old Swedish Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy student will be racing in the second round of the Formula 2 championship with the Hitech Grand Prix team and he will also make his debut driving in an official Formula 1 session, when he gets behind the wheel of Charles Leclerc’s SF-25 for the first free practice session.”

The Swede will become the fifth driver from the Maranello Academy to drive a Ferrari in an official session after Charles and Arthur Leclerc, Robert Schwartzman and Oliver Bearman.

Beganovic made his F2 debut for the final two rounds of the 2024 season after finishing 6th in last season’s F3 campaign.

The Ferrari academy man has multiple Swedish karting titles to his name, before graduating to single seaters in the 2020 season where he has continued to impress.

Charles Leclerc is reportedly thinking about his Ferrari future after a tough start to the 2025 season.

Heading into the new season, all eyes were on Ferrari after Lewis Hamilton made a high-profile move from Mercedes to join the Scuderia.

However, the SF-25 has been a major disappointment as they have largely failed to keep up with the likes of McLaren and Red Bull.

Despite the early season struggles, Ferrari currently sit second in the constructors’ standings with 165 points, 197 behind runaway leaders McLaren.

Following the underwhelming start to 2025, it has been claimed that star man Leclerc is thinking about leaving the team.

As reported by Italian news outlet Corriere della Sera, Leclerc has doubts about his long-term future with the team.

The Monegasque is said to be losing faith in the project and is no longer ruling out a transfer away ahead of the regulation changes in 2026. He reportedly fears that Ferrari will not be competitive under the new rules.

With Leclerc’s future thrown into doubt, Mercedes have emerged as a potential destination.

It has been claimed that team boss Toto Wolff holds a long-standing interest in the 27-year-old.

What has Toto Wolff said about Charles Leclerc?

Speaking back in 2023, Wolff said of Leclerc: “Charles is a super guy and, for the long-term future, someone you need to always have on your radar, and that’s clear. But not for the short and the medium term.

“I think nobody doubts Charles’ ability. He is a good guy. I think he’s 100% committed and loyal to Ferrari with his contract.”

Speaking about Hamilton’s exit, Wolff said that it denied him the chance to sign Leclerc.

The Mercedes team boss added: “I expected that sooner or later Lewis Hamilton would leave us, but I didn’t think it would be this soon. This way, he didn’t give me the chance to talk with Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris, whom I could have brought here to Mercedes, but they had just renewed their respective contracts. I didn’t even get a chance to try.”

Leclerc finished on the podium last time out at the Spanish Grand Prix and will be hoping for a similar result in Canada this weekend.

Red Bull have announced another driver change ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix just weeks after brutally dropping Liam Lawson.

After a somewhat lacklustre Japanese Grand Prix, Formula One fans are eagerly anticipating the sport’s return to the popular Bahrain International Circuit this weekend.

Going into the fourth race of the 2025 season, all eyes will be on Red Bull as fans continue to monitor new driver Yuki Tsunoda after he replaced Liam Lawson ahead the Japanese GP.

But it appears that Red Bull aren’t done altering their driver lineup, as they’ve also made last-minute change to who will be in the car during the race weekend for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Ahead of the 2025 F1 season, the FIA, the governing body for the sport, introduced a series of rule changes, including the decision to make it mandatory for each of the 20 drivers to give up their seat in a free practice session at least twice this year.

And that is exactly what Red Bull are doing at Bahrain Grand Prix, as young driver Ayumu Iwasa will replace reigning F1 champion Max Verstappen during the first free practice session of the weekend on Friday afternoon.

It is likely that this decision was made given the fact that just six weeks ago, Verstappen was able to put dozens of laps in at the Bahrain International Circuit which, as always, hosted pre-season testing this year.

Iwasa was officially announced as a Red Bull Junior driver back in 2021, making his official Formula One race weekend debut during a free practice session at his home race, the Japanese Grand Prix, last year.

The young talent drove for Racing Bull in the first practice session of the weekend, stepping in for fan-favourite driver Daniel Ricciardo.

He placed 16th in the session, a second behind RB teammate and fellow Japanese driver Tsunoda.

The 23-year-old was also handed a chance to drive the same car at the final race weekend of the 2024 season in Abu Dhabi, finishing the session in 17th and 0.6 second behind Lawson.