According to F1’s sporting regulations, McLaren still had to fulfil its commitment to run a second rookie in an FP1 session later this year.
It had ticked off the first one with Oscar Piastri being nominated for his F1 debut weekend in Bahrain, and had been anticipated to give its second slot to Alex Palou – who had been expected to become one of its reserves from this weekend’s race in Singapore.
However, with Palou having gone back on plans to joins McLaren in IndyCar, the Woking-based squad has had to re-evaluate things.
Speaking at the Singapore Grand Prix, McLaren said that a decision had now been made to run Arrow McLaren IndyCar driver O’Ward in both Abu Dhabi free practice as well as the post-race tyre test that takes place the week after the F1 season finale.
The Abu Dhabi run will be the Mexican's first appearance at an F1 weekend since he had his debut free practice run at last year’s Abu Dhabi event.
Source: Autosport