Racing
© Jonathan Borba
Aston Martin has confirmed that third driver Jak Crawford will replace Lance Stroll in the opening FP1 session at next weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, giving the American his fourth practice outing for the team and his second of the 2026 season.
The Red Bull Ring session is part of Formula 1’s mandatory rookie-running requirement, which obliges each full-time driver to hand over their car twice during the season to a driver with no more than two grand prix starts. Crawford’s one-hour run in Stroll’s AMR26 will leave Aston Martin with two of its four required sessions completed, with both Stroll and Fernando Alonso still due to give up one more FP1 later in the year.
Austria will be Crawford’s latest step through Aston Martin’s young-driver programme after earlier FP1 appearances at the 2025 Mexico City and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix and a run in Alonso’s car at Suzuka in March. He also arrives with fresh mileage in the AMR26 after completing a Pirelli tyre test in Barcelona earlier this week.
Crawford said the outing gives him another chance to turn simulator and test work into useful track feedback. “It’s great to have another opportunity to drive the AMR26 during a race weekend,” he said. “Austria is a circuit I know well and it’s quite special to be returning to the Red Bull Ring with the team, almost two years after my first test in an Aston Martin F1 car.”
He said he had “spent a lot of time in the simulator this season supporting the team” and was now focused on “delivering useful feedback and maximising the session for the team.”
Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack said the session was part of a wider evaluation of Crawford’s progress. “Jak continues to play an important role as Third Driver and this FP1 session is another valuable step in that process,” Krack said.
He added that Crawford had been “heavily involved in our simulator programme throughout the season” and that Austria provides “another opportunity for us to evaluate his progress in a race weekend environment while gathering valuable data for the team.”
For Aston Martin, that makes Crawford’s Austria run more than a regulatory box to tick. It is another live test of a reserve driver the team is leaning on for simulator work, development support and now a growing share of its mandatory rookie sessions.