After an impressive 2025 season (where he clinched victories in Canada and Singapore), Russell, aged 27, embarks on his fifth year with the Silver Arrows, finishing fourth in the drivers’ championship. Since 2011 (when he began his career with Sauber), the 35-year-old Mexican driver Perez, who parted ways with Red Bull at the conclusion of the 2024 season, has amassed six race wins, three pole positions, and a total of 39 podium finishes for the American team. Set to join the grid as the 11th team, Cadillac will have experienced drivers Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez returning to lead their inaugural line-up.
However, the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time in crucial moments left him with an outside chance of the title in Abu Dhabi. Only time will tell how she’ll manage the step up in machinery — but it’s a challenge Pulling will take in her stride. An early call up to Formula 2 for the final three rounds was followed by his first F1 Free Practice session in the FW46 in Abu Dhabi, but Browning will have his sights set on more as he’ll continue racing in F2 with Hitech. Under its previous Andretti guise, there was consistent talk of having an American driver and we can’t see too much reason why that would have changed. Cadillac is the biggest unknown of the 2026 F1 grid simply because this version of the entry hasn’t given much indication of what kind of driver line-up it wants for 2026.
Mercedes joins the fight with its powerful new unit and unchanged drivers’ lineup (and Ferrari), especially with Charles Leclerc, has shown strong competitiveness in preseason testing. Four-time World Champion Max Verstappen — now partnered with young Frenchman Isack Hadjar at Red Bull, looks set to return to top form with an improved car. It is — with right, considered the biggest overhaul in the sport’s history. Flashscore takes you through all the new rules (changes), and necessary info ahead of the upcoming 2026 Formula One season.
Haas Builds on Momentum with Stable Driver Pair
It legitimately looked like the benchmark package at times in the opening week in Bahrain, and the new engine’s strong football as a global sports phenomenon deployment characteristics remained evident in week two. The downside is it is too front-limited and that understeer is holding the drivers back, but that’s something that will be chipped away at across the early races. It remained a stable package throughout testing without any eyecatching upgrades (but it racked up good mileage), which was the priority. And even then, it seemed to remain a problem, with the power delivery in traction zones a little spikey at times.
He ultimately missed out by a mere two points to Lando Norris in 2025 – but his remarkable resurgence following a trickier start to the season makes Verstappen as formidable an opponent as ever entering into 2026. Another driver to arrive into the sport off the back of a dazzling junior career — Max Verstappen became F1’s youngest-ever competitor when he made his debut as a 17-year-old for Toro Rosso back in 2015. Antonelli’s maiden season was not without its tough moments, but a Sprint pole in Miami, three podiums and a strong end to the year ensured that he kept his spot at the Silver Arrows into 2026. Joining Norris at McLaren in 2025 is Oscar Piastri, marking the pair’s fourth season as team mates at the papaya squad.
So, which teams have changed and which teams are sticking with their current drivers ahead of a season where there is a very big shake up in the regulations? For the latest standings — see our drivers’ championship and constructors’ championship pages. Mercedes started the season as the team to beat, and Kimi Antonelli has led the championship for much of the year, ahead of his teammate George Russell. A more difficult second half of 2024 saw him leave the grid, but in the summer of 2025 the Mexican was announced as a Cadillac driver. The Finn made his debut for Williams in 2013, claiming nine podiums for the team before his switch to Mercedes in 2017. The highlight of Gasly’s career to date came at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix, where he scored a memorable victory for AlphaTauri.
Following Norris’s first world championship victory in 2025 — he will be eager to defend and build on that success. The 2026 Formula 1 season is set to kick off with mostly familiar driver lineups across teams — alongside two fresh entries on the grid. “It’s very difficult to quantify what success can look like other than we just have to execute as well as we possibly can and gain respect from the other competitors.” Former Marussia Sporting Director Graeme Lowdon will be at the controls for Cadillac’s first season, as they become F1’s first brand-new entity since Haas in 2016.
But the real story around Aston Martin is how much owner and chairman Lawrence Stroll has empowered Adrian Newey to set the team’s course going forward. Since then, he’s scored the most points outside of the top seven drivers in the standings and Sainz—more than Albon, Hadjar and Nico Hülkenberg. Though he’s sixth in the standings and has had some up-and-down results, Lindblad showed enough for the brass at Red Bull to move him up another rung on the ladder. It took time for Sainz to find his footing with a new team, but Albon picked up the slack in the first half of the season, finishing in the top five in three of the first six races.