2024 F1 reserve drivers: the hopefuls on standby for each GP team

Not a single new driver joined the grid in 2024, which means the ranks of F1 reserve drivers are swelling with young talent, just waiting for their chance to prove themselves in the F1 arena.

Most have typically burned brightly in Formula 2, some winning the championship, but they then take their seat on the substitute bench, their single-seater career often on pause, as they hold out for an opportunity, sometimes for year after year.

That chance can come out of the blue — as Oliver Bearman has found at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix — where Carlos Sainz has been ruled out with a case of appendicitis. The F2 driver, who won four times last season, now has a seat in the very car that finished third in the Bahrain Grand Prix, courtesy of being on duty as Ferrari’s reserve driver in Jeddah.

Others awaiting a moment in the spotlight include the last two F2 champions Theo Pourchaire and Felipe Drugovich , along with 2022 runner-up Robert Schwartzman.

---

2024 F1 reserve drivers

Click on a team name for more details

Team	Reserve driver(s)
Red Bull	Liam Lawson
Mercedes	Mick Schumacher, Frederik Vesti
Ferrari	Oliver Bearman, Antonio Giovinazzi and Robert Shwartzman
Aston Martin	Felipe Drugovich
McLaren	Ryo Hirakawa and Pato O’Ward
Alpine	Jack Doohan
Visa CashApp RB	Liam Lawson
Stake F1	Theo Pourchaire, Zane Maloney
Williams	N/A
Haas	Pietro Fittipaldi and Oliver Bearman

---

As well as attending races, reserve drivers will assist with simulator work — testing new components or set-up options. They are also at the front of the queue to get a taste of F1 machinery in the two free practice sessions that teams must offer to younger drivers each year

Should illness, injury or even a team dispute sideline one of the race drivers then, as with Bearman, the team’s reserve driver is suddenly thrust into the spotlight with sometimes just one race to make an impact. Nyck de Vries impressed so much for Williams at Monza in 2022 that AlphaTauri offered him a contract for the following season — although that didn’t quite work out as planned. Last year, Liam Lawson burnished his credentials with assured drives when Daniel Ricciardo was sidelines with a broken hand, and is widely expected to secure a 2025 drive.

An F1 reserve driver’s duties can also vary from team to team: some called in as a ‘super-sub’ from other categories such as IndyCar or the World Endurance Championship, while others travel and work with the team more frequently, with regular simulator sessions. Customer teams such as Haas or Williams have the option of borrowing reserve drivers from suppliers such as Ferrari and Mercedes — allowing some drivers to have more chances than others at an F1 debut.

With that in mind, below are details of all the reserve drivers confirmed as an option for the 2024 F1 season.

 

---

Red Bull

Reserve driver: Liam Lawson

With a prestigious driver academy at its disposal, Red Bull has many options when it comes to its 2023 reserve drivers. But the first name on the list of replacements should either Max Verstappen or Sergio Perez be unable to race is undoubtably Liam Lawson.

The Kiwi throughly impressed during his first F1 outings with AlphaTauri last year, replacing the injured Daniel Ricciardo from Zandvoort to Qatar. Lawson consistently beat temporary team-mate Yuki Tsunoda during qualifying and on race day and even scored points in Singapore. However, the team stuck with the same line-up for 2024, leaving Lawson back in his reserve driver role.

There are suggestions that he is all but guaranteed a full-time 2025 seat, where he would replace either Ricciardo or Tsunoda at the renamed RB team.

 

Mercedes

Reserve drivers: Mick Schumacher, Frederik Vesti 

There are no guarantees that a reserve role will lead to a race seat, and that’s clear in the case of Mick Schumacher who, after being dropped by Haas, took the back-up role for Mercedes. It could have been perfect timing, given Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari at the end of the season but, as of now, Schumacher does not appear to be in the frame to fill the seat.

However, with more than half of drivers coming to the end of their contracts in 2024, there could be vacancies elsewhere. Schumacher has already made an impact with impressive simulator work which has translated into on-track success — Lewis Hamilton and George Russell paying tribute to the German after a double podium finish in Spain.

Schumacher also pieced together some impressive performances during his first two F1 campaigns, where he picked up points in Britain and Austria. In addition to his Mercedes role, he has signed to race Alpine’s Hypercar in this year’s World Endurance Championship, which includes the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Schumacher is sharing reserve duties with Frederik Vesti, last year’s runner-up in the F2 series, who is competing in the 2024 European Le Mans Series, with Cool Racing’s LMP2 car.

He has already driven in an F1 practice session, for Mercedes, at last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

 

Ferrari

Reserve driver: Oliver Bearman, Antonio Giovinazzi and Robert Shwartzman

After an impressive F2 campaign and two FP1 outings with Haas in 2023, Oliver Bearman joined the list of Ferrari F1 reserve drivers and was on duty in Jeddah when Carlos Sainz was diagnosed with a case of appendicitis. The 18-year-old will now step up to fill his shoes, in the car that was capable of a podium finish in Bahrain.

The young Briton is also competing in his second F2 season with Prema this year, alongside Mercedes junior driver Kimi Antonelli. He won four races last season to finish sixth in the championship and also looked assured in free practice outings for the Haas F1 team in Mexico City and Abu Dhabi, with respectable lap times.

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has spoken of the need to “prepare him for the future” as a Ferrari F1 prospect, and his race debut in Saudi Arabia will offer the team a unique snapshot of how well that is progressing.

Bearman is joined by long-term Ferrari reserve and test driver Robert Shwartzman and former Alfa Romeo driver Antonio Giovinazzi. The latter has also posed a prominent figure as part of Ferrari’s Hypercar programme and had been in consideration for a drive at Haas before a crash during practice at the US GP may have quashed his chances,

Aston Martin

Reserve drivers: Felipe Drugovich

After setting up its own young driver programme in 2023, Aston Martin hired the services of reigning F2 champion Felipe Drugovich to fill its reserve driver spot.

The young Brazilian enjoyed a dominant campaign in 2022, claiming feature race wins in Jeddah, Barcelona, Monaco and Zandvoort — allowing him to wrap up the F2 title in Monza with a race to spare. His consistent performance throughout the season put him on the radar of most F1 teams but with very few spaces, Drugovich is currently limited to the sidelines while Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll enjoy the team’s resurgent performance. In the meantime, he will attend races throughout the year to gain experience, as well as compete in FP1 sessions.

Although his first outing at the 2023 Italian GP did little to impress, Drugovich found incredible pace during the first practice session of the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend, as he finished second in the overall standings, just 0.228s off the pace set by Mercedes’ George Russell.

More impressive performances like that could land him in the radar of many teams moving forward, and after Lewis Hamilton’s shock move to Ferrari, Mercedes could come calling.

McLaren

Reserve drivers: Ryo Hirakawa and Pato O’Ward

McLaren have chosen to adopt a fresh reserve driver line-up for 2024, composed of IndyCar star Pato O’Ward and Le Mans winner Ryo Hirakawa.

As an engine customer to Mercedes — an agreement has recently been extended until 2030 — the Woking marque have often utilised reserve drivers from other teams instead of employing their own. In 2023, Mick Schuamcher and Felipe Drugovich were on standby. But in an effort to make it a more standalone outfit, McLaren CEO Zak Brown has chosen to look further afield that many other teams on the grid, in the hope of showing that F1 talent lies on the other side of the Atlantic too.

O’Ward, who has completed several test sessions for the team and made his FP1 debut at the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, is already a well-accomplished driver in IndyCar having finished fourth or better in the series three times in the last four years. Similarly, Hirakawa joins McLaren off the back of brilliant WEC campaigns with Toyota in 2022 and 2023 — finishing at the top of the drivers’ and constructors’ standings on both occassions. The Japanese driver has limited experience in a F1 car, but McLaren have confirmed that Hirakawa will complete laps in the team’s 2021-spec MCL35M as part of a testing programme as well as completing simulator work. He will also continue to race for Toyota’s WEC team too.

 

Alpine

Reserve driver: Jack Doohan

Following the controversial departure of Oscar Piastri in 2022, Jack Doohan was the named reserve driver for Alpine in 2023 and his role has now been confirmed for 2024.

Although he may have been outshone by the likes of Felipe Drugovich in 2022 and now Theo Pourchaire, Doohan’s progress throughout the 2023 F2 campaign has begun to turn heads — picking up feature race wins in Hungary and Belgium. While a full-time F1 seat could elude him for the foreseeable future, gaining experience under F1 race winners Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly will only help his development as he will not race in F2 again this season.

 

Visa Cash App RB

Reserve drivers: Liam Lawson

Under the rule of Red Bull, Visa Cash App RB (formerly AlphaTauri) are made to be flexible when it comes to its reserve drivers. While there are no official reserve drivers listed, the team are given the luxury of picking from a large pool of talented Red Bull juniors — Liam Lawson once again at the top of the list.

Should the Kiwi be unavailable to race if called upon, new team principal Laurent Mekies may also have access to F2 stars Ayumu Iwasa and Jak Crawford — the latter having competed in two FP1 sessions in 2023.

 

Alfa Romeo

Reserve drivers: Theo Pourchaire, Zane Maloney

Theo Pourchaire has followed an impressive F2 campaign in 2022 — finishing second in the title standings — with further progress in 2023: winning the championship by 11 points over Frederik Vesti. As a member of the Sauber Academy since 2019, the talented Frenchman has been on the F1 radar for some time, but after Zhou Guanyu had his contract extended into 2024, Pourchaire will be forced to wait at least another year before a chance at a full-time F1 seat.

He will be sharing duties with Zane Maloney. The Barbados-born 20-year-old joined the Sauber Academy for 2024, having been named 2022 rookie of the year in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, having finished second in the standings in his debut season. He moved on to Formula 2 last year, claiming four podiums with Rodin Carlin.

Maloney will be back on the F2 grid with Rodin in 2024, in addition to his reserve duties at certain grands prix. Both he and Pourchaire are likely to have the opportunity to drive the Formula 1 car in FP1 practice sessions.

 

Williams

Reserve drivers: TBC

As a customer team of Mercedes, Williams does not employ its own reserve driver — instead utilising the Silver Arrows pool of young talent. In 2022, it was able to call on the talents of Nyck de Vries or Stoffel Vandoorne — utilising the former in Monza after Alex Albon underwent surgery for appendicitis. It’s not yet confirmed if the same agreement is in place in 2024, but if so, Mick Schumacher would possibly be the most likely candidate to sub in.

Logan Sargeant was the team’s official test driver in 2022, before being promoted to a full-time seat in 2023. The American endured a mediocre rookie campaign and his current performance continues, he could possibly return to his former duties as a named reserve driver in 2025.

Haas

Reserve drivers: Pietro Fittipaldi and Oliver Bearman

For the past three seasons, Haas has employed Pietro Fittipaldi as its reserve driver — the young Brazilian and grandson of two-time F1 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi making FP1 appearances in Mexico and Abu Dhabi last year. His contract was extended for 2023, but Haas remains hesitant to promote him into a full-time seat — choosing experience over youth in his current driver line-up.

Fittipaldi will be joined by Ferrari reserve driver Oliver Bearman, who will get at least six FP1 outings across the 2024 F1 campaign for Haas, although it is not known at which races the Briton will feature.