Aston Martin will put Jak Crawford in Lance Stroll’s AMR26 for FP1 at the Austrian Grand Prix, giving the team’s third driver another race-weekend run in the opening hour at the Red Bull Ring. It will be Crawford’s fourth FP1 appearance for Aston Martin and his second of the 2026 season.
The timing matters because the session falls next weekend, when teams begin shaping their weekend around the first official laps of the Austrian Grand Prix. For Crawford, 21, it is another chance to turn simulator work and test mileage into something useful on track. He said every Formula 1 opportunity is valuable, and that he is focused on delivering feedback and making the most of the session for the team.
Crawford arrived at this point with momentum. He completed a Pirelli tyre test with Aston Martin in Barcelona earlier this week and, in March, made his first FP1 appearance of the year at the Japanese Grand Prix, where he deputised for Fernando Alonso. That history helps explain why his name is back in the car now: Aston Martin is using its rookie practice allocation and wants a driver already steeped in its programme rather than a complete newcomer.
Under F1 rules, teams must field a rookie in four FP1 sessions over a season, two in each car, and the Austrian Grand Prix will be Aston Martin’s second of those four mandated runs. Crawford already knows the Red Bull Ring from his F2 and F3 days, and his first experience in an Aston Martin F1 car came in Austria in June 2024, when he tested the AMR22. This time he returns in the AMR26, the car the team will judge him against in a live weekend environment.
What stands out is the switch itself. Aston Martin has not said why Stroll is being replaced for the session, and no issue has been made public around his availability. That leaves the move looking less like a response to a problem than a deliberate evaluation choice, one that gives Crawford another look while keeping the team inside its rookie-run requirements.
Mike Krack said Crawford continues to play an important role as Third Driver and described the FP1 outing as another valuable step. He said Crawford has been heavily involved in the simulator programme and has recently completed productive running in Barcelona, while Austria offers a chance to assess his progress in a race-weekend setting and collect data for the team. For Crawford, the path is clear enough: another lap, another session, another chance to prove that the work behind the scenes belongs on the timing sheet too.
