The 2024 Components 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 driving force foolish season spun into movement. Finally a number of drivers discovered new groups, different drivers discovered themselves on the skin wanting in, and a handful of rookies joined the grid for 2025.
Now, thanks to a different determination, the driving force switch market is about to kick off for the 2026 marketing campaign.
That call? The information that F1 has formally authorized an eleventh staff, the partnership between TWG Motorsports and Basic Motors to compete as a Cadillac staff beginning in 2026. Which means two extra seats to be crammed, and months of breathless hypothesis as nicely.
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 shall 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” cope with the staff forward of the 2024 season, which is able to preserve him in Woking by way of 2027. As for Piastri, he signed a “multi-year” extension with McLaren throughout his 2023 rookie season, which is able to see 2026 as the ultimate yr of his deal.
Replace: Forward of the Australian Grand Prix McLaren introduced a “multi-year” extension for Piastri, that may preserve 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 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 choice for a 3rd. Which means he shall 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 staff by way of at the least 2026, whereas Stroll introduced a brand new cope with the staff final summer time that may preserve him with the staff for “2025 and past.”
Haas
Haas is likely one of the F1 groups with a very new driver lineup for the 2025 season. Esteban Ocon joins the staff 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 cope with 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 cope with the Scuderia — it made Carlos Sainz Jr. the most important free agent on the driving force switch market.
Hypothesis adopted Sainz from monitor to trace, however finally Sainz solid his lot with James Vowles and Williams on a multi-year cope with “choices to increase” past the 2026 season.
That can 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 is not going to be the one “new” staff on the grid. The 2025 season marks the ultimate marketing campaign for Sauber, forward of Audi taking on 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 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 cope with the staff final summer time to maintain him at Alpine by way of 2026.
Alpine was one of many groups pursuing Carlos Sainz Jr., however finally 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 government Flavio Briatore telling the younger Doohan “I management you. Each millimeter.”
From Doohan’s perspective, if he performs on the monitor, that seat could 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 needs, we may see Colapinto — or another person — in that seat for 2026.
If not sooner.
Purple Bull
Right here we go.
Max Verstappen signed a long-term cope with Purple Bull again within the 2022 season that may preserve him with the staff by way of 2028.
Nevertheless, as we discovered early final season, there are clauses in that contract that enable Verstappen to depart the staff. These clauses have been put to the check throughout the early-year controversy surrounding Group Principal Christian Horner, and allegations of misconduct levied towards the Purple Bull boss.
Mercedes Group Principal Toto Wolff, discovering himself with a vacant spot due to Lewis Hamilton’s determination to go away the staff for Ferrari, confirmed he met with Verstappen’s administration throughout the 2024 marketing campaign. Verstappen has additionally been linked with Aston Martin, resulting from Adrian Newey’s transfer to the staff for this yr.
That being mentioned, Verstappen continues to brush apart any rumors of a transfer away from Purple Bull, and there’s each expectation he shall be with them for the foreseeable future.
As for who his teammate shall be, Purple 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 distinct course 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 Purple 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 finally 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 be not confirmed for 2026, as he’s within the ultimate 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 possible 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.
Nevertheless, 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 Group
Now we flip to Purple 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 Purple Bull alongside Max Verstappen.
Each drivers are on one-year offers.
A promotion to Purple Bull might be on the desk for one in every of these drivers if Liam Lawson falters alongside Verstappen. But when Lawson does sufficient to maintain his spot, then what’s going to VCARB do with this lineup for 2026? Hadjar possible earns a second season, given his inexperience, however there are already rumblings about Tsunoda’s long-term future within the Purple 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 chance for Yuki [at Red Bull] in all honesty this yr, does it [keeping him on] make sense?”, requested Horner. “You’ll be able to’t have a driver within the help staff for 5 years. You’ll be able to’t all the time be the bridesmaid. You’ve both received to allow them to go at that time or take a look at one thing totally different.”
Cadillac
That brings us to Cadillac.
With the information that they’ve been formally authorized for a spot on the grid, hypothesis is kicking into excessive gear over what drivers they’ll signal for 2026.
And the staff can start talking with drivers.
“There’s some very proficient drivers nonetheless on the market,” mentioned Group 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 are able to transfer ahead with that.”
Who would possibly they try to transfer ahead with?
When the proposed Cadillac-Andretti staff first introduced their intentions to affix the F1 grid, Michael Andretti careworn 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 Purple Bull sought an exemption for Herta, however finally 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 couple of 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 mathematics 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 wished.
“I’ll be all proper both approach.”
Herta is probably going underneath robust consideration by Cadillac, however there have been different names linked with the staff for 2026. Valtteri Bottas, who discovered himself with no seat for the 2025 season and is spending this yr as a reserve at Mercedes, is an choice. So too is his former teammate Zhou Guanyu, who may need an inside monitor 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 Purple Bull household, he might be an choice 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 finally indicators, having two extra spots on the grid to fill for 2026 goes to make for some unbelievable hypothesis over the following few months.
If not longer.
