Two Americans in Mexico City practice: Herta and Crawford head a six car FP1 shake up

First practice at the Mexico City Grand Prix on Friday, October 30 will look very different from a normal session. Six regular drivers are handing their cars to reserves and rookies, according to Grande Prêmio, and two of the stand ins are American: Colton Herta at Cadillac and Jak Crawford at Aston Martin.

The session starts at 12:30 PM local time, which is 2:30 PM Eastern, 1:30 PM Central, 12:30 PM Mountain and 11:30 AM Pacific. US clocks do not fall back until Sunday morning, so Friday is still on daylight time. Every session is listed in our Mexico City race times guide.

Who is out and who is in

Team	Regular driver	FP1 driver
Cadillac	Valtteri Bottas	Colton Herta
Aston Martin	Lance Stroll	Jak Crawford
Mercedes	George Russell	Frederik Vesti
Audi	Gabriel Bortoleto	Freddie Slater
Alpine	Franco Colapinto	Gabriele Minì
Williams	Alex Albon	Luke Browning

The six swaps above are the ones listed by Grande Prêmio, which says all six regulars are expected back for second practice later on Friday. RaceFans also expects Ryo Hirakawa to run for Haas and notes that some teams had not announced their plans when it published.

Abstract illustration of a row of empty pit garages above white and lime lane lines — Grid and Pit illustration

Why so many changes

Teams must run a rookie, defined as a driver with no more than two Grand Prix starts, in four first practice sessions a season, two in each car, PlanetF1 explains. With five rounds left including this one, teams that still owe sessions have few chances left to run them.

Herta's fifth outing for Cadillac

Herta takes over Bottas's car, the Cadillac team says, making this his fifth first practice appearance of the season. It matters more than most because he is chasing the FIA super license he would need to race in 2027. Grandprix.com notes that public calculations of his exact points total differ. We break that arithmetic down in Colton Herta's super license math.

Crawford returns to where he started

Crawford, a 21 year old from Houston, will drive Stroll's car, according to an Aston Martin announcement made during the Austin weekend. It is his fourth practice outing of 2026 after Japan, Austria and Belgium, and it completes the team's four mandated rookie sessions for the year. Mexico City is also where he made his practice debut in 2025, completing 29 laps. "It's a special circuit for me," Crawford said in the team's release.

Vesti in Russell's car

Mercedes reserve Frederik Vesti will drive Russell's car for the first time, PlanetF1 reports. His two earlier outings this season, in Barcelona and Hungary, were in Kimi Antonelli's car. Vesti made his first race weekend appearance at this same event in 2023, also in place of Russell. Losing an hour of running is a cost for Russell, who sits only one point ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the fight for second, as we explain in the battle behind Antonelli.

Abstract illustration of a gray circuit loop on navy with a checkered strip below — Grid and Pit illustration

Two debuts

RaceFans says at least two drivers will make their first appearance in a practice session this weekend. Audi's Freddie Slater, who finished second in Formula 3 this year, takes Bortoleto's car, and Alpine's Gabriele Minì drives in place of Colapinto.

What to watch

The altitude makes cooling and downforce hard to manage, so Friday morning running is valuable data for every team, even with a reserve in the seat. For Herta the target is distance as much as lap time. For the latest on Cadillac, see our Cadillac hub, and for the American team's weekend plans read Cadillac takes Pérez home for his 300th Grand Prix.

Sources