We will see plenty of fresh races driving F1 cars in FP1 during the course of the season as all ten teams are required to run rookies or drivers with very little experience on two occasions.

For a driver to be eligible to take part in one of these sessions, they “may not have participated in more than two F1 World Championship Races during their career.”

Chatting to MotorLat and other selected media on Friday in Barcelona, AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost said that Liam Lawson and Jüri Vips will take part in the sessions for AlphaTauri and Red Bull respectively.

Lawson and Vips are no strangers to F1 machinery as they’ve previously taken part in young driver tests. 

Vips did so with Red Bull Racing in 2020 and 2021, while Lawson had his first opportunity in December. 

“It will be Liam Lawson,” Tost said.

“This is of course also a decision from Red Bull; currently the drivers are Lawson and Vips.

"I think that Vips will drive for Red Bull Racing and Lawson for Scuderia AlphaTauri.

"He [Lawson] was also testing with us last year in Abu Dhabi and he did a good job."

The Red Bull-backed drivers are both heading into their second full seasons of Formula 2 in 2022.

Lawson won on his F2 debut in Bahrain last year but ultimately ended up P9 in the standings as Hitech struggled for pace throughout the second half of the season in particular.

Vips – who was Lawson’s teammate at Hitech – fared a little better as he scored a superb two victories in Baku. The Estonian claimed 6th in the championship, 17 points in front of the Kiwi.

While Vips stays at Hitech, Lawson switches to Carlin in 2022.

“He [Lawson] is driving this year in Formula 2 and then we will see what the next steps will be,” Tost concluded.