With Cadillac confirmed for the 2026 F1 season, what does the driver lineup look like for next year?
The 2024 Formula 1 driver transfer season kicked into gear with a stunning decision: Lewis Hamilton’s announcement that he was going to leave Mercedes and drive for Ferrari starting in 2025.
Over the following weeks, intrigue followed the sport as the driver silly season spun into motion. Ultimately several drivers found new teams, other drivers found themselves on the outside looking in, and a handful of rookies joined the grid for 2025.
Now, thanks to another decision, the driver transfer market is about to kick off for the 2026 campaign.
That decision? The news that F1 has formally approved an 11th team, the partnership between TWG Motorsports and General Motors to compete as a Cadillac team starting in 2026. That means two more seats to be filled, and months of breathless speculation as well.
So let’s take stock of how the 2026 driver lineup looks ahead of the 2025 season.
What F1 teams have two drivers signed for 2026?
As things stand, six of the teams that will be on the grid in 2026 have a complete driver lineup.
Including the defending Constructors’ Champions.
McLaren
Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are signed for McLaren for the 2026 season. Norris signed a new “multi-year” deal with the team ahead of the 2024 season, which will keep him in Woking through 2027. As for Piastri, he signed a “multi-year” extension with McLaren during his 2023 rookie season, which will see 2026 as the final year of his deal.
Ferrari
Ferrari’s driver pairing is set for the 2026 campaign. Charles Leclerc put pen to paper on a new contract in January of 2024 that will keep him with Ferrari for “several” seasons. As for Lewis Hamilton, the contract he signed with Ferrari is reportedly for two years, with an option for a third. That means he will be in place for at least 2025 and 2026.
Aston Martin
Both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll are signed through the 2026 season. Alonso signed a contract extension in April of 2024 to remain with the team through at least 2026, while Stroll announced a new deal with the team last summer that will keep him with the team for “2025 and beyond.”
Haas
Haas is one of the F1 teams with a completely new driver lineup for the 2025 season. Esteban Ocon joins the team after driving for Alpine the past few seasons, while Oliver Bearman is one of the rookies joining the grid for the 2025 campaign.
Both drivers are on a deal with Haas that runs through the 2026 F1 season.
Williams
When Hamilton decided to leave for Ferrari starting in 2025 — and Leclerc having already redone his deal with the Scuderia — it made Carlos Sainz Jr. the biggest free agent on the driver transfer market.
Speculation followed Sainz from track to track, but ultimately Sainz cast his lot with James Vowles and Williams on a multi-year deal with “options to extend” beyond the 2026 season.
That is also the last year of the deal his new teammate, Alexander Albon, signed in the spring of 2024.
Audi
Lost in the news over Cadillac joining the grid for the 2026 season is the fact that the American team will not be the only “new” team on the grid. The 2025 season marks the final campaign for Sauber, ahead of Audi taking over that operation as a works team in 2026.
But ahead of the 2025 season, Audi lined up their driver pairing on long-term deals. Nico Hülkenberg was confirmed as Audi’s first F1 driver ahead of the 2024 Miami Grand Prix and is signed with the team through 2026. As is incoming rookie, and 2024 F2 Drivers’ Champion, Gabriel Bortoleto.
What F1 teams have one open seat for 2026?
There are two teams with one open seat in 2026, each representing a fascinating story.
Alpine
Let’s start with Alpine.
Esteban Ocon’s move to Haas opened up a seat alongside Pierre Gasly, who signed a two-year deal with the team last summer to keep him at Alpine through 2026.
Alpine was one of the teams pursuing Carlos Sainz Jr., but ultimately the team promoted reserve driver Jack Doohan to a full-time spot on the grid for the 2025 season.
But Doohan is driving on a one-year deal, and with the move by Alpine to add Franco Colapinto, last year’s Williams “super-sub” as a reserve driver there is speculation around the paddock that Doohan is on the shortest of leashes. Speculation only increased with the release of Season 7 of the Netflix docuseries Drive to Survive, which features Alpine senior executive Flavio Briatore telling the young Doohan “I control you. Every millimeter.”
From Doohan’s perspective, if he performs on the track, that seat might be his for 2026. F1 is, after all, a results-based business. It is named Drive to Survive for a reason. But if Doohan does not deliver the results Alpine wants, we could see Colapinto — or someone else — in that seat for 2026.
If not sooner.
Red Bull
Here we go.
Max Verstappen signed a long-term deal with Red Bull back in the 2022 season that can keep him with the team through 2028.
However, as we learned early last season, there are clauses in that contract that allow Verstappen to depart the team. Those clauses were put to the test during the early-year controversy surrounding Team Principal Christian Horner, and allegations of misconduct levied against the Red Bull boss.
Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff, finding himself with a vacant spot thanks to Lewis Hamilton’s decision to leave the team for Ferrari, confirmed he met with Verstappen’s management during the 2024 campaign. Verstappen has also been linked with Aston Martin, due to Adrian Newey’s move to the team for this year.
That being said, Verstappen continues to brush aside any rumors of a move away from Red Bull, and there is every expectation he will be with them for the foreseeable future.
As for who his teammate will be, Red Bull believed they put that matter to rest with a new deal for Sergio Pérez last summer, but as the results failed to follow, they moved in a different direction for 2025. The team parted ways with Pérez and signed Liam Lawson to a one-year deal for this season.
If Lawson performs, that spot might remain his for 2026. But if not — and as Red Bull has shown in the past — they are more than willing to give another driver a shot.
What F1 teams have two open seats for 2026?
That leaves us with the three teams that do not have a driver lined up for next year.
Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari opened up a seat at Mercedes for the 2025 season, one Toto Wolff ultimately filled with young phenom Andrea Kimi Antonelli, one of the rookies joining the grid for the 2025 season.
But Antonelli is on a one-year deal.
His teammate George Russell is also not confirmed for 2026, as he is in the final year of the contract he signed with Mercedes back in 2023.
According to Wolff, the team has options to extend both drivers, so Mercedes will likely have the same pairing for 2026 that they do this season. Russell just celebrated his 27th birthday in February, and Antonelli turned 18 last August, giving Mercedes a young and talented driver pairing.
However, if the performance is not up to par for Wolff, the team does have a window to look elsewhere for one — or both — seats.
Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team
Now we turn to Red Bull’s sister team.
VCARB begins this year with a pairing of Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar, with Hadjar making the leap from F2 and Tsunoda being passed over for the spot at Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen.
Both drivers are on one-year deals.
A promotion to Red Bull could be on the table for one of these drivers if Liam Lawson falters alongside Verstappen. But if Lawson does enough to keep his spot, then what will VCARB do with this lineup for 2026? Hadjar likely earns a second season, given his inexperience, but there are already rumblings about Tsunoda’s long-term future in the Red Bull family. Speaking back in December following the announcement of Hadjar’s move to VCARB, Horner brought Tsunoda’s future into question. “We’re acutely aware that if we’re not able to provide an opportunity for Yuki [at Red Bull] in all honesty this year, does it [keeping him on] make sense?”, asked Horner. “You can’t have a driver in the support team for five years. You can’t always be the bridesmaid. You’ve either got to let them go at that point or look at something different.”
Cadillac
That brings us to Cadillac.
With the news that they have been formally approved for a spot on the grid, speculation is kicking into high gear over what drivers they will sign for 2026.
And the team can begin speaking with drivers.
“There’s some very talented drivers still out there,” said Team Principal Graeme Lowdon on Friday. “We hadn’t been able to be in the driver market until the entry was confirmed. Now it has, we can move forward with that.”
Who might they try and move forward with?
When the proposed Cadillac-Andretti team first announced their intentions to join the F1 grid, Michael Andretti stressed that it was going to be an All-American operation.
And he had a driver in mind: Current IndyCar driver Colton Herta.
Herta has been linked with a move to F1 in the past. Back in 2021 he was linked with a move to Sauber to drive alongside Valtteri Bottas, but talks broke down and the team signed Zhou Guanyu for the 2022 season. Herta was signed as a development driver for McLaren for the 2022 campaign, and then was linked with a move to AlphaTauri. Lacking the requisite points for an F1 Super License Red Bull sought an exemption for Herta, but ultimately the sport’s governing body denied the request.
But Herta is coming off his best IndyCar season, where he finished second in the Drivers’ Championship to Alex Palou. He scored a pair of wins last year, first in Toronto and then in the season finale in Nashville, his first win on an oval.
He finished 16th in the season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg last weekend.
Herta spoke with the media, including SB Nation about a potential move to F1 ahead of the 2025 IndyCar campaign. But the driver brushed the rumors aside, nothing that he did not even know what results he needed to finally secure that F1 Super License.
“I guess the answer to that is I didn’t even know what the math was to get a Super License, so if it happens, great, and then I’ll have a decision to make,” said Herta to the media, including SB Nation, in January. “If I’m still wanted.
“I’ll be all right either way.”
Herta is likely under strong consideration by Cadillac, but there have been other names linked with the team for 2026. Valtteri Bottas, who found himself without a seat for the 2025 season and is spending this year as a reserve at Mercedes, is an option. So too is his former teammate Zhou Guanyu, who might have an inside track given the fact that Lowdon is part of his management team. If Yuki Tsunoda indeed sees his time run out at VCARB in the Red Bull family, he could be an option as well.
Then there are some of Herta’s current rivals in IndyCar. Both Pato O’Ward and three-time IndyCar Champion Alex Palou have been linked with a future move to F1.
A wildcard?
What about Sergio Pérez?
Regardless of who Cadillac ultimately signs, having two more spots on the grid to fill for 2026 is going to make for some incredible speculation over the next few months.
If not longer.
