Beganovic to drive Leclerc's car in Bahain GP's opening practice

Ferrari have announced that Dino Beganovic will take over Charles Leclerc's car in the opening practice session at the Bahrain Grand Prix on what will become an action-packed weekend for the Swedish driver.

Dino Beganovic is going to have a busy weekend in Bahrain. The 21-year-old Swedish Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy driver will be racing in the second round of the Formula 2 championship with the Hitech Grand Prix team in Sakhir 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.

This is in line with the FIA regulation which states that each race driver must give up his seat to a young driver with fewer than two Formula 1 race starts to their name, twice during the season – up from once last year.

Ferrari's decision to provide Beganovic with an F1 outing means that he will become the fifth driver from the Maranello Academy to drive a Ferrari in an official session, the other four being Charles and Arthur Leclerc, Robert Schwartzman and Oliver Bearman.

Beganovic, who was enrolled in the Academy in 2020, will be the second Swede to drive for the Scuderia in Formula 1, following on from Stefan Johansson who raced with Ferrari in 1985 and 1986, finishing on the podium six times from 31 starts. Although he never drove for the Maranello marque in Formula 1, the great Ronnie Peterson, won several endurance races at the wheel of a Ferrari 312 P in the Seventies.