The 2024 Components 1 driver switch season kicked into gear with a surprising resolution: Lewis Hamilton’s announcement that he was going to depart Mercedes and drive for Ferrari beginning in 2025.
Over the next weeks, intrigue adopted the game as the motive force foolish season spun into movement. Finally a number of drivers discovered new groups, different drivers discovered themselves on the surface wanting in, and a handful of rookies joined the grid for 2025.
Now, thanks to a different resolution, the motive force switch market is about to kick off for the 2026 marketing campaign.
That call? The information that F1 has formally authorised an eleventh staff, the partnership between TWG Motorsports and Normal Motors to compete as a Cadillac staff beginning in 2026. Meaning two extra seats to be stuffed, and months of breathless hypothesis as nicely.
So let’s take inventory of how the 2026 driver lineup appears to be like forward of the 2025 season.
What F1 groups have two drivers signed for 2026?
As issues stand, six of the groups that might be on the grid in 2026 have an entire driver lineup.
Together with the defending Constructors’ Champions.
McLaren
Each Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are signed for McLaren for the 2026 season. Norris signed a brand new “multi-year” cope with the staff forward of the 2024 season, which can preserve him in Woking by 2027. As for Piastri, he signed a “multi-year” extension with McLaren throughout his 2023 rookie season, which can see 2026 as the ultimate yr of his deal.
Ferrari
Ferrari’s driver pairing is about for the 2026 marketing campaign. Charles Leclerc put pen to paper on a brand new contract in January of 2024 that may preserve him with Ferrari for “a number of” seasons. As for Lewis Hamilton, the contract he signed with Ferrari is reportedly for 2 years, with an possibility for a 3rd. Meaning he might be in place for no less than 2025 and 2026.
Aston Martin
Each Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll are signed by the 2026 season. Alonso signed a contract extension in April of 2024 to stay with the staff by no less than 2026, whereas Stroll introduced a brand new cope with the staff final summer season that may preserve him with the staff for “2025 and past.”
Haas
Haas is without doubt one of the F1 groups with a totally new driver lineup for the 2025 season. Esteban Ocon joins the staff after driving for Alpine the previous few seasons, whereas Oliver Bearman is without doubt one of the rookies becoming a member of the grid for the 2025 marketing campaign.
Each drivers are on a cope with Haas that runs by the 2026 F1 season.
Williams
When Hamilton determined to depart for Ferrari beginning in 2025 — and Leclerc having already redone his cope with the Scuderia — it made Carlos Sainz Jr. the most important free agent on the motive force switch market.
Hypothesis adopted Sainz from observe to trace, however in the end Sainz solid his lot with James Vowles and Williams on a multi-year cope with “choices to increase” past the 2026 season.
That can also be the final yr of the deal his new teammate, Alexander Albon, signed within the spring of 2024.
Audi
Misplaced within the information over Cadillac becoming a member of the grid for the 2026 season is the truth that the American staff won’t be the one “new” staff on the grid. The 2025 season marks the ultimate marketing campaign for Sauber, forward of Audi taking up that operation as a works staff in 2026.
However forward of the 2025 season, Audi lined up their driver pairing on long-term offers. Nico Hülkenberg was confirmed as Audi’s first F1 driver forward of the 2024 Miami Grand Prix and is signed with the staff by 2026. As is incoming rookie, and 2024 F2 Drivers’ Champion, Gabriel Bortoleto.
What F1 groups have one open seat for 2026?
There are two groups with one open seat in 2026, every representing an interesting story.
Alpine
Let’s begin with Alpine.
Esteban Ocon’s transfer to Haas opened up a seat alongside Pierre Gasly, who signed a two-year cope with the staff final summer season to maintain him at Alpine by 2026.
Alpine was one of many groups pursuing Carlos Sainz Jr., however in the end the staff promoted reserve driver Jack Doohan to a full-time spot on the grid for the 2025 season.
However Doohan is driving on a one-year deal, and with the transfer by Alpine so as to add Franco Colapinto, final yr’s Williams “super-sub” as a reserve driver there’s hypothesis across the paddock that Doohan is on the shortest of leashes. Hypothesis solely elevated with the discharge of Season 7 of the Netflix docuseries Drive to Survive, which options Alpine senior govt Flavio Briatore telling the younger Doohan “I management you. Each millimeter.”
From Doohan’s perspective, if he performs on the observe, that seat may be his for 2026. F1 is, in spite of everything, a results-based enterprise. It’s named Drive to Survive for a cause. But when Doohan doesn’t ship the outcomes Alpine desires, we might see Colapinto — or another person — in that seat for 2026.
If not sooner.
Crimson Bull
Right here we go.
Max Verstappen signed a long-term cope with Crimson Bull again within the 2022 season that may preserve him with the staff by 2028.
Nonetheless, as we discovered early final season, there are clauses in that contract that enable Verstappen to depart the staff. These clauses had been put to the take a look at through the early-year controversy surrounding Workforce Principal Christian Horner, and allegations of misconduct levied towards the Crimson Bull boss.
Mercedes Workforce Principal Toto Wolff, discovering himself with a vacant spot due to Lewis Hamilton’s resolution to depart the staff for Ferrari, confirmed he met with Verstappen’s administration through the 2024 marketing campaign. Verstappen has additionally been linked with Aston Martin, on account of Adrian Newey’s transfer to the staff for this yr.
That being stated, Verstappen continues to brush apart any rumors of a transfer away from Crimson Bull, and there’s each expectation he might be with them for the foreseeable future.
As for who his teammate might be, Crimson Bull believed they put that matter to relaxation with a brand new deal for Sergio Pérez final summer season, however because the outcomes did not observe, they moved in a distinct path for 2025. The staff parted methods with Pérez and signed Liam Lawson to a one-year deal for this season.
If Lawson performs, that spot would possibly stay his for 2026. But when not — and as Crimson Bull has proven previously — they’re greater than keen to offer one other driver a shot.
What F1 groups have two open seats for 2026?
That leaves us with the three groups that shouldn’t have a driver lined up for subsequent yr.
Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton’s transfer to Ferrari opened up a seat at Mercedes for the 2025 season, one Toto Wolff in the end stuffed with younger phenom Andrea Kimi Antonelli, one of many rookies becoming a member of the grid for the 2025 season.
However Antonelli is on a one-year deal.
His teammate George Russell can also be not confirmed for 2026, as he’s within the remaining yr of the contract he signed with Mercedes again in 2023.
In response to Wolff, the staff has choices to increase each drivers, so Mercedes will doubtless have the identical pairing for 2026 that they do that season. Russell simply celebrated his twenty seventh birthday in February, and Antonelli turned 18 final August, giving Mercedes a younger and gifted driver pairing.
Nonetheless, if the efficiency is lower than par for Wolff, the staff does have a window to look elsewhere for one — or each — seats.
Visa Money App Racing Bulls F1 Workforce
Now we flip to Crimson Bull’s sister staff.
VCARB begins this yr with a pairing of Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar, with Hadjar making the leap from F2 and Tsunoda being handed over for the spot at Crimson Bull alongside Max Verstappen.
Each drivers are on one-year offers.
A promotion to Crimson Bull may very well be on the desk for one in all these drivers if Liam Lawson falters alongside Verstappen. But when Lawson does sufficient to maintain his spot, then what is going to VCARB do with this lineup for 2026? Hadjar doubtless earns a second season, given his inexperience, however there are already rumblings about Tsunoda’s long-term future within the Crimson Bull household. Talking again in December following the announcement of Hadjar’s transfer to VCARB, Horner introduced Tsunoda’s future into query. “We’re acutely conscious that if we’re not in a position to present a possibility for Yuki [at Red Bull] in all honesty this yr, does it [keeping him on] make sense?”, requested Horner. “You possibly can’t have a driver within the help staff for 5 years. You possibly can’t at all times be the bridesmaid. You’ve both obtained to allow them to go at that time or take a look at one thing completely different.”
Cadillac
That brings us to Cadillac.
With the information that they’ve been formally authorised for a spot on the grid, hypothesis is kicking into excessive gear over what drivers they may signal for 2026.
And the staff can start talking with drivers.
“There’s some very gifted drivers nonetheless on the market,” stated Workforce Principal Graeme Lowdon on Friday. “We hadn’t been in a position to be within the driver market till the entry was confirmed. Now it has, we will transfer ahead with that.”
Who would possibly they attempt to transfer ahead with?
When the proposed Cadillac-Andretti staff first introduced their intentions to hitch the F1 grid, Michael Andretti harassed that it was going to be an All-American operation.
And he had a driver in thoughts: Present IndyCar driver Colton Herta.
Herta has been linked with a transfer to F1 previously. Again in 2021 he was linked with a transfer to Sauber to drive alongside Valtteri Bottas, however talks broke down and the staff signed Zhou Guanyu for the 2022 season. Herta was signed as a improvement driver for McLaren for the 2022 marketing campaign, after which was linked with a transfer to AlphaTauri. Missing the requisite factors for an F1 Tremendous License Crimson Bull sought an exemption for Herta, however in the end the game’s governing physique denied the request.
However Herta is coming off his greatest IndyCar season, the place he completed second within the Drivers’ Championship to Alex Palou. He scored a pair of wins final yr, first in Toronto after which within the season finale in Nashville, his first win on an oval.
He completed sixteenth within the season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg final weekend.
Herta spoke with the media, together with SB Nation a few potential transfer to F1 forward of the 2025 IndyCar marketing campaign. However the driver brushed the rumors apart, nothing that he didn’t even know what outcomes he wanted to lastly safe that F1 Tremendous License.
“I assume the reply to that’s I didn’t even know what the mathematics was to get a Tremendous License, so if it occurs, nice, after which I’ll have a choice to make,” stated Herta to the media, together with SB Nation, in January. “If I’m nonetheless needed.
“I’ll be all proper both approach.”
Herta is probably going underneath sturdy consideration by Cadillac, however there have been different names linked with the staff for 2026. Valtteri Bottas, who discovered himself and not using a seat for the 2025 season and is spending this yr as a reserve at Mercedes, is an possibility. So too is his former teammate Zhou Guanyu, who may need an inside observe given the truth that Lowdon is a part of his administration staff. If Yuki Tsunoda certainly sees his time run out at VCARB within the Crimson Bull household, he may very well be an possibility as nicely.
Then there are a few of Herta’s present rivals in IndyCar. Each Pato O’Ward and three-time IndyCar Champion Alex Palou have been linked with a future transfer to F1.
A wildcard?
What about Sergio Pérez?
No matter who Cadillac in the end indicators, having two extra spots on the grid to fill for 2026 goes to make for some unbelievable hypothesis over the subsequent few months.
If not longer.
