Ferrari are all set to place Antonio Fuoco in Lewis Hamilton's SF-25 for the upcoming Mexico City Grand Prix's First Practice session. Announcing the same, the Prancing Horse shared a statement.
All you need to know about Antonio Fuoco
Fuoco has been associated with Ferrari for a very long-time, currently focused on endurance racing. A racer for the Prancing Horse in the WEC, Fuoco won the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year with 499P.
Why is Ferrari replacing Lewis Hamilton at the Mexican GP FP1?
With this, Ferrari would be able to complete three sessions reserved for rookies per session. Every year, a team needs to reserve four sessions for testing of the car, which is compulsory.
Charles Leclerc to give opportunity to Dino Beganovic
Earlier, Hamilton's fellow teammate, Charles Leclerc dropped out of two sessions to give Dino Beganovic the chance to test the latest car, the SF-25. Beganovic filled in for Leclerc at the Bahrain and Austrian Grand Prix this year.
This will be the first time Hamilton will miss a practice session for Ferrari since his arrival to the side this year. However, the seven-time world champion will return to his seat for FP2, Qualifying, and the race.
The upcoming Mexico Grand Prix is set to take place this weekend, and it is going to be the 20th race weekend of the season. Following Mexico, F1 will conclude its season with Las Vegas, Sao Paulo, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi.
Lewis Hamilton reflects on Ferrari's positive result
Following the US Grand Prix on Sunday, Lewis Hamilton said that Ferrari took away a lot of positives from the race weekend in the end, after the struggles they faced on Friday. The 40-year old also said that it was a "perfect result" for the side during the Sunday race in terms of points scored.
Speaking to F1 TV after the race, Hamilton was optimistic about the Maranello-based side's performance over the whole weekend, saying:
"We can definitely take a lot of positives. Just the way we have extracted points this weekend, given we haven't upgraded the car, we are still somehow just there or thereabouts." (2:18)
Hamilton then explained how his race panned out:
"I got a bad start. Managed to still get a good Turn 1, which then recovered the start, and then I was kind of in the fight at the beginning. Got Charles before his stop but lost a bit of time there to Lando. After my stop I came out so far behind. So the strategy wasn't ideal, but perfect result in terms of points for the team."
Hamilton is yet to find a podium finish at Ferrari since arriving at the team this season. The veteran has four P4 finishes and even a Sprint win earlier this season in China.