Oscar Piastri is one of three regular drivers who will sit out Free Practice in Hungary: The McLaren driver is making way for F2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli
Oscar Piastri will sit out the first Free Practice session at the Formula 1 race in Budapest and let Formula 2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli take the wheel. The driver swap is part of the Friday Driver Rule, under which each team must cede two Free Practice sessions per car to a rookie.
For Fornaroli, this is already the second practice session he’s been allowed to complete in the 2026 season. He previously drove the MCL40 in the first free practice session in Barcelona, standing in for World Champion Lando Norris. This means McLaren has already allocated half of the required sessions to a young driver.
Fornaroli will be taking part in an extremely important session for McLaren: In Budapest, the team will have a comprehensive update package that needs to be tested. In addition, the Macarena rear wing is set to make its debut—a feature that was actually supposed to be tested in Austria.
McLaren thinks highly of Fornaroli and wants to secure racing opportunities for him in 2027. The Italian has been linked to Haas, where Esteban Ocon’s chances of retaining his seat appear slim. However, he faces stiff competition for the seat from Ferrari junior Rafael Camara and Yuki Tsunoda.
Friday drivers at a glance
Oliver Bearman is expected to continue driving the other car—though not in the first practice session at the Hungaroring: The Brit will also sit this one out and hand his seat over to Toyota protégé Ryo Hirakawa, who has already driven Ocon’s car in Austria.
Paul Aron will be the third rookie to take the wheel. For the Estonian, this is already his third session this year. However, after being loaned to Audi in Barcelona and Spielberg, he is now driving for his actual home team, Alpine, where he will replace Franco Colapinto.
Alpine has not yet assigned a Friday driver to any practice sessions and must therefore do so three more times after the summer break.
