Ericsson will be in the service of Spa for the Alfa Romeo team, with whom he is the official third and reserve driver.
Sources have indicated that there may be an issue that could prevent the team’s regular racer, Kimi Raikkonen, from competing and Ericsson is said to have traveled to Belgium on Thursday morning.
The team’s official position is that there is no plan for Ericsson but it is needed as a reserve.
Ericsson lost his ride on the Sauber team after the 2018 season, while Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi formed an entirely new line-up when the post adopted the name Alfa for ’19.
The Swede is still associated with Alfa and has dovetailed his spare role with a full-time IndyCar program for the Arrow Schmidt Peterson team in the US.
Raikkonen and Giovinazzi were featured in Alfa’s official media schedule for the Belgian GP earlier this week, while Ericsson was due to be in Portland for the next round of his rookie indy campaign.
But Ericsson was in Stockholm until early Thursday morning when he was usually out touring the US before the race weekend, and SPM then issued a statement that he would be replaced for Conor Daly for Portland at the request of Alfa Romeo Racing for Conor Daly, while Marcus Ericsson will be at the Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix at the weekend “.
Daly completed a partial season with Carlin in IndyCar this year and also contested the Indianapolis 500 with Andretti Autosport. He drove with SPM in Indy in 2015.
Alfa released its official race preview Thursday, with both regular racers and no indication of an impending change.
The rules of F1 give teams until Friday to decide who will participate in practice. One last call in the morning would give Alfa more time if the spa expert Raikkonen wants to continue attending.
Should Ericsson replace Raikkonen in training on Friday, the rules would still allow Raikkonen to return on Saturday and finish the rest of the weekend, although such a scenario would be unlikely.
Ericsson had a difficult first season at IndyCar, taking a podium finish with second place in Detroit but only finished 17th in the championship after several missed opportunities.
His future on the series has been questioned after his Schmidt Peterson team’s 2020 collaboration with McLaren was announced.
Ericsson left F1 after its most competitive season to date, having scored points in six races but also left rookie team-mate Charles Leclerc 39 points to nine in the final standings last year.
Should Ericsson return to F1 he would have the opportunity to start earning points again immediately as Alfa is one of the most competitive cars in the midfield.
He drove the car in a Pirelli tire test in Austria earlier this year.
Alfa is in a fierce battle for fifth place in the constructors’ championship, but due to the point differences between its two drivers, the team is only in seventh place, eight points behind Renault and twelve points behind Toro Rosso.
Raikkonen has had a good first season at Alfa since leaving Ferrari, scoring 31 points to be eighth in the championship.
But Giovinazzi has fought and is 18th overall with just one point on his name.
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