The 2024 System 1 driver switch season kicked into gear with a shocking determination: Lewis Hamilton’s announcement that he was going to go away 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. In the end a number of drivers discovered new groups, different drivers discovered themselves on the surface trying in, and a handful of rookies joined the grid for 2025.
Now, thanks to a different determination, the motive force switch market is about to kick off for the 2026 marketing campaign.
That call? The information that F1 has formally permitted an eleventh group, the partnership between TWG Motorsports and Basic Motors to compete as a Cadillac group beginning in 2026. Meaning two extra seats to be crammed, and months of breathless hypothesis as effectively.
So let’s take inventory of how the 2026 driver lineup appears 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 a whole 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” take care of the group forward of the 2024 season, which can hold him in Woking by way of 2027. As for Piastri, he signed a “multi-year” extension with McLaren throughout his 2023 rookie season, which can see 2026 as the ultimate 12 months of his deal.
Replace: Forward of the Australian Grand Prix McLaren introduced a “multi-year” extension for Piastri, that can hold him in Woking past the 2026 season.
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 can hold 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 choice for a 3rd. Meaning he might be in place for at the least 2025 and 2026.
Aston Martin
Each Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll are signed by way of the 2026 season. Alonso signed a contract extension in April of 2024 to stay with the group by way of at the least 2026, whereas Stroll introduced a brand new take care of the group final summer time that can hold him with the group for “2025 and past.”
Haas
Haas is likely one of the F1 groups with a totally new driver lineup for the 2025 season. Esteban Ocon joins the group after driving for Alpine the previous few seasons, whereas Oliver Bearman is likely one of the rookies becoming a member of the grid for the 2025 marketing campaign.
Each drivers are on a take care of Haas that runs by way of the 2026 F1 season.
Williams
When Hamilton determined to go away for Ferrari beginning in 2025 — and Leclerc having already redone his take care of the Scuderia — it made Carlos Sainz Jr. the largest free agent on the motive force switch market.
Hypothesis adopted Sainz from monitor to trace, however in the end Sainz forged his lot with James Vowles and Williams on a multi-year take care of “choices to increase” past the 2026 season.
That can also be the final 12 months 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 group won’t be the one “new” group on the grid. The 2025 season marks the ultimate marketing campaign for Sauber, forward of Audi taking up that operation as a works group 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 group by way of 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 take care of the group final summer time to maintain him at Alpine by way of 2026.
Alpine was one of many groups pursuing Carlos Sainz Jr., however in the end the group 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 12 months’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 monitor, that seat is perhaps his for 2026. F1 is, in any case, a results-based enterprise. It’s named Drive to Survive for a motive. But when Doohan doesn’t ship the outcomes Alpine desires, we may 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 take care of Crimson Bull again within the 2022 season that may hold him with the group by way of 2028.
Nonetheless, as we realized early final season, there are clauses in that contract that enable Verstappen to depart the group. These clauses had been put to the check through the early-year controversy surrounding Crew Principal Christian Horner, and allegations of misconduct levied towards the Crimson Bull boss.
Mercedes Crew Principal Toto Wolff, discovering himself with a vacant spot due to Lewis Hamilton’s determination to go away the group for Ferrari, confirmed he met with Verstappen’s administration through the 2024 marketing campaign. Verstappen has additionally been linked with Aston Martin, resulting from Adrian Newey’s transfer to the group for this 12 months.
That being mentioned, 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 time, however because the outcomes did not observe, they moved in a unique path for 2025. The group 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 12 months.
Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton’s transfer to Ferrari opened up a seat at Mercedes for the 2025 season, one Toto Wolff in the end full of 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 12 months of the contract he signed with Mercedes again in 2023.
In keeping with Wolff, the group has choices to increase each drivers, so Mercedes will seemingly 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 proficient driver pairing.
Nonetheless, if the efficiency is less than par for Wolff, the group does have a window to look elsewhere for one — or each — seats.
Visa Money App Racing Bulls F1 Crew
Now we flip to Crimson Bull’s sister group.
VCARB begins this 12 months 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 might 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 seemingly 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 capable of present a possibility for Yuki [at Red Bull] in all honesty this 12 months, does it [keeping him on] make sense?”, requested Horner. “You may’t have a driver within the help group for 5 years. You may’t at all times be the bridesmaid. You’ve both received to allow them to go at that time or have a look at one thing completely different.”
Cadillac
That brings us to Cadillac.
With the information that they’ve been formally permitted for a spot on the grid, hypothesis is kicking into excessive gear over what drivers they may signal for 2026.
And the group can start talking with drivers.
“There’s some very proficient drivers nonetheless on the market,” mentioned Crew Principal Graeme Lowdon on Friday. “We hadn’t been capable of be within the driver market till the entry was confirmed. Now it has, we are able to transfer ahead with that.”
Who would possibly they attempt to transfer ahead with?
When the proposed Cadillac-Andretti group 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 group 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 finest IndyCar season, the place he completed second within the Drivers’ Championship to Alex Palou. He scored a pair of wins final 12 months, 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 suppose the reply to that’s I didn’t even know what the maths was to get a Tremendous License, so if it occurs, nice, after which I’ll have a choice to make,” mentioned Herta to the media, together with SB Nation, in January. “If I’m nonetheless needed.
“I’ll be all proper both manner.”
Herta is probably going underneath sturdy consideration by Cadillac, however there have been different names linked with the group for 2026. Valtteri Bottas, who discovered himself with out a seat for the 2025 season and is spending this 12 months as a reserve at Mercedes, is an choice. So too is his former teammate Zhou Guanyu, who might need an inside monitor given the truth that Lowdon is a part of his administration group. If Yuki Tsunoda certainly sees his time run out at VCARB within the Crimson Bull household, he might be an choice as effectively.
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 unimaginable hypothesis over the following few months.
If not longer.
