With the 2025 Formula 1 season reaching its end on Dec. 7 in Abu Dhabi, fans are left wondering what their favorite teams and drivers will make of the season to come. Pre-season testing will begin on Feb. 11, leading up to the first Grand Prix of 2026 in Australia on March 8, but until then, we’re breaking down our predictions for the upcoming season.

After taking home both the 2025 Constructors’ Championship and 2025 World Championship in the form of their first seat driver, Lando Norris, there’s no doubt we can expect great things from McLaren in the 2026 season. This is especially true with their driver lineup remaining the same, with British driver Norris (who has been with the team since 2019) and Australian driver Oscar Piastri (who signed with McLaren in 2023). The team’s 2026 season isn’t devoid of changes; however, instead of keeping Norris as their No. 1 driver (who usually gets the better car and general management), they are opting to remove the No. 1 and No. 2 rankings altogether, instead allowing their drivers to battle it out. This decision actually isn’t very surprising considering all of the backlash the team faced during the 2025 season for apparent “favoring” of Norris over Piastri—despite Piastri’s lead in the majority of the World Championship fight. Still, do we think the team will suddenly stop favoring Norris? Probably not. Thus, we expect more McLaren driver drama in 2026, but whether or not it will be enough to keep the team off the podium remains to be seen.

Mercedes is also keeping its 2025 season drivers: British driver George Russell and Italian driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The 2026 season will mark Russell’s fourth year with Mercedes which he joined after leaving Williams. In contrast, 2026 will only be Antonelli’s second year with Mercedes and on the grid as a whole. Despite his lack of experience, however, Antonelli has already made a name for himself with the team, earning a few podiums throughout the 2025 season. With this in mind, Antonelli seems to be a fast learner (and an even faster driver), which when combined with Russell’s own skills and ample experience on the grid, makes Mercedes look like a strong contender for the 2026 Constructors’ Championship title.

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Oracle Red Bull is keeping the four-time World Champion Dutchman Max Verstappen—who was only two points behind the 2025 World Champion Lando Norris and from claiming his fifth title. However, 2026 marks a teammate change for Verstappen, who used to race alongside Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda. Tsunoda will stay on team Red Bull as a reserve and test driver, while Frenchman Isack Hadjar will take his place in the second seat. Hadjar was promoted to Red Bull from their junior team, Racing Bulls, where he raced with Liam Lawson for the 2025 season. It’s no surprise that Red Bull moved Hadjar considering his impressive driving throughout his rookie season, which included a podium finish at Zandvoort, but is this switch really a promotion? The second seat at Red Bull hasn’t been known to favor the careers of the unfortunate drivers assigned to it, including (but not limited to) Daniel Ricciardo, Sergio Perez, Alex Albon and now Tsunoda. We can only hope that the odds remain in Hadjar’s favor, and that a season with Red Bull doesn’t burn him out at the very beginning of his career. Meanwhile, we have high hopes for Verstappen; ones that include winning a fifth World Championship. 

With Ferrari’s decided under-performance in the 2025 season, the future may look bleak for drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. 2025 marked the pair’s first year racing as teammates, and Hamilton’s first with Ferrari. While Hamilton is a seven-time-World-Champion, his first year in a Ferrari proved to be nothing short of a disaster, with him placing largely in the double-digits (a big leap from the podium finishes fans had grown accustomed to). Leclerc, who has spent the last seven years with Ferrari, fared better in terms of places, but shared Hamilton’s frustration in other areas. Both drivers were disqualified in China, and both DNFed (Did Not Finish) in the Netherlands and Brazil—a testament to the team’s abounding management and technical issues. For Ferrari, we can predict a few podium finishes, maybe even some Grand Prix wins, but nothing too major, like, for example, a Constructors’ Championship.

Williams will return for the 2026 season with its 2025 lineup, Thai-British driver Alex Albon and Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr. While this will only be Sainz’s second season with the team, we’re eager to see what he makes of it. Throughout 2025, Sainz proved himself to be a quick learner at Williams, adapting his driving to the car in record time—aka, just in time to snag two podium finishes before the end of the season—which begs the question, what will he be capable of with not just his skill but experience under his belt? Meanwhile, Albon has been with Williams since 2022 and spent 2025 helping the team up to 5th place in the Constructors’ Championship, both their highest placement since 2017 (also 5th) and an impressive leap from 2024’s 9th place. Basically, we’re prepared for some great things to come from Williams and its drivers with this new gain in momentum. 

While the 2025 season saw the initiation of five rookies, only one will take to the grid in 2026. British driver Arvid Lindblad will join Liam Lawson for Racing Bulls, replacing the ‘promoted’ Hadjar. Lindblad was the youngest champion to win the Bahrain Sprint race at just sixteen years old. Given his history of placing high and being able to take home wins, his outlook for the future is bright (but hopefully not ‘Red- Bull-second-seat bright’). New Zealander Lawson will begin his sixth year with Racing Bulls (not including the disastrous stint he did with Red Bull at the beginning of 2025), and while we don’t have much hope for any big changes for Lawson, we think he and Lindblad combined might be able to turn the tide at Racing Bulls in their favor. 

The 2025 season was a rocky road for Aston Martin. Given no podium wins to show for their struggles and a (much) less than perfect car to work with, their 7th place finish in the Constructors’ Championship was practically inevitable. Perhaps this wouldn’t be as much of an issue if it wasn’t for the additional fact that the 2024 season was eerily similar, which may or may not be a sign of stagnance at Aston Martin. Still, we place our hope in the drivers, or at least one of them. Spanish driver Fernando Alonso will step into his 23rd season on the F1 grid, in which he has won 32 Grand Prix and two World Championships. Although he most likely won’t have the best car on the grid, considering his award-winning history, we can’t count Alonso out. That being said, we don’t think his skill will be enough to dig the team out of the hole it’s found itself in. As for his partner, Canadian driver Lance Stroll, we don’t foresee any additional success. It may be his tenth F1 season (eighth with Aston Martin), but he hasn’t seen the podium for the most recent five of those, and isn’t showing any obvious signs of improvement. In short, we predict the team’s only saving grace to continue to be Alonso, and we’d recommend they drop Stroll for a rookie if they ever want a shot at the Constructors’ Championship. 

Toyota takeover: Haas is moving into a new era. The title sponsor Moneygram will be replaced by Toyota Gazoo. Even though their title is changing, their lineup will remain the same with French driver Esteban Ocon and Brit Ollie Bearman. In 2025, Bearman successfully racked up over half of the team’s points for the Constructors’ Championship (of which Haas finished 8th) despite his rookie status. In total, both drivers brought in 79 points for the team, the most it’s seen since 2018 (93 points). On his own, Bearman has proven to be nothing but deserving of his place on the grid (and hopefully an offer from a higher-placed team in the future) with his 4th place finish at the Mexico City Grand Prix—the highest place finish from a Haas driver since Romain Grosjean in 2018. Ocon, on the other hand, didn’t have an incredible 2025, often finishing at places in the double-digits. Add that on top of the tough competition from his teammate, and Ocon seems even less likely to find success in the 2026 season. He will be entering his 10th season in the F1 universe. Despite this possible inner-turmoil, Haas seems to be an upward trend, and we foresee this steady incline continuing into 2026. 

Audi, formerly known as Kick Sauber, will be changing its team name for the 2026 season, but keeping its drivers: German Nico Hulkenberg and Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto. The 2025 season certainly had its ups and downs for Kick Sauber (Audi), with notable moments like the first podium finish of Hulkenberg’s career at Silverstone and Bortoleto’s 6th place finish (a career best for the young rookie) at the Lenovo Hungarian Grand Prix. Still, for Sauber it seemed every high had to be counteracted by a low, such as Bortoleto’s crash at his home race in Sao Paulo and Hulkenberg’s DNS (Did Not Start) at the Italian Grand Prix. Overall, the future is looking bleak for Audi and their racers, and we don’t have much hope for them—though we wish them the best in 2026.

Finishing in last place in the Constructors’ Championship with only 22 points, 2025 was definitely not Alpine’s year. Not only was this the lowest they’d placed in team history, but neither Gasly or Colapinto had a place average outside of the tens. French driver Gasly scored all 22 of the team’s points, while the Argentine driver didn’t score a single point in the 2025 season. With all this in mind, Alpine seems to be in the midst of a downward spiral, one that would need two point-scoring drivers at the least, to get itself out of. We just pray that they can figure something out for 2026, for Gasly’s sake. This team is iffy, but hopefully they can make it work. 

Arguably the largest change to Formula 1 in 2026 is the introduction of a new team: Cadillac. Despite the novelty of the team itself, both of its drivers are F1 veterans. Hailing from Mexico, Sergio “Checo” Perez will return from his one-year racing hiatus to (hopefully) give the team a running start. Meanwhile, his teammate, Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas will also be making a grand re-entrance to the F1 grid. Before his brief retirement, Bottas raced with many teams from 2012-2024, including Kick Sauber (now Audi), Mercedes and Williams. Perez has just one more year of experience on the grid, racing from 2011-2024 with a variety of teams—most notably, Red Bull, who he made it to second place in the World Championship with. Their combined racing experience totals to an impressive 106 podiums (67 from Bottas and 39 from Perez), which gives us hope for Cadillac’s future. However, we can’t get too ahead of ourselves considering 2026 will be the team’s debut year, and almost certainly rife with problems. Still, at the moment we wager they’ll do better than Alpine.