Who are the F1 Reserve Drivers?

What is an F1 reserve driver?

You cannot be an F1 team, let alone a sports team, without your backup players in case someone is injured, sick, or suddenly needs their appendix removed (we’re looking at you, Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz).

That is exactly what the main purpose of an F1 reserve driver is: they step into the car on a race weekend when one of the primary drivers cannot drive. For example, Oliver Bearman stepped in as a reserve three times during the 2024 F1 season. For Ferrari during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix when Sainz had the aforementioned appendicitis, and for Haas during the Azerbaijan and the São Paulo Grands Prix when Kevin Magnussen was disqualified and sick, respectively.

That said, there are many roles that F1 reserves serve beyond just filling in an empty driver’s seat. Reserve drivers can contribute to the development of the car, help with testing during the pre-season and provide feedback during practice and qualifying sessions of a race weekend. 

Pietro Fittipaldi, who was Haas’s reserve driver between 2018 to 2024, spoke about his involvement with the team to the New York Times Athletic, saying “I was helping that process of giving driver feedback live throughout the session so that they can improve, and that as well, I gained a lot of experience in analyzing data and driver onboards, which is very beneficial for when I’m racing as well because I kind of became like an engineer on that standpoint.”

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Who can be an F1 reserve driver?

There are many different paths that lead to becoming a reserve driver, but they all have one thing in common: the Super Licence. 

This is a specific driving license provided by the FIA that allows someone to race in F1. A ‘Free Practice Only’ variant also exists, but is geared more toward junior drivers who would just be driving in FP1. That means all F1 reserve drivers must hold a full, Grade A Super License to race. To qualify for a Super License, drivers must accumulate a specific threshold of points through their performance in other racing series. (Of note, the Super License used specifically in F1, and is not to be confused with the FIA’s driver categorization system, which is applicable to all FIA-run racing series).

As for who typically becomes a reserve driver, let's run through the two most common scenarios:

1. A younger driver who is signed to an F1 team's driver development program and is using this role to strengthen their future F1 seat prospects. This was the case for Bearman in 2024, who was still an F2 driver with Prema when he stepped up for Sainz and Magnussen.

2. A driver who has already driven in F1, but did not secure a seat for the season. Their experience and fanbase serves as a strength to the F1 team, as they already know the ins and outs of the paddock, and are extremely familiar with driving an F1 car. This is the case for Yuki Tsunoda, who will serve as Red Bull’s reserve driver for 2026.

And did you know that several drivers on the current F1 grid were once reserves themselves during their junior careers?

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Who are some former Reserve Drivers on the current F1 Grid?

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It's very common that reserve drivers earn a full time drive in Formula 1. This includes some major names, like Oscar Piastri, George Russell, and Daniel Ricciardo, all of who served as reserve drivers before their full time drives.

Here are some former reserve drivers on the main grid for the 2026 F1 Season:

• Oliver Bearman. We’ve mentioned him already, but he served as a reserve for both Ferrari and Haas in 2024, before becoming a fulltime driver for Haas in 2025.
• Franco Colapinto served as a reserve driver for both Williams and Alpine in the past. He currently drives full-time for Alpine.
• Liam Lawson was a Red Bull and Racing Bulls reserve driver between 2022 and 2024.. Lawson is currently a fulltime driver for Racing Bulls.

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Who are the 2026 F1 Reserve Drivers?

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