The 2024 Formula 1 season began with a bit of history for hte sport. For the first in F1 history the drivers who finished the previous season were the same drivers who began the next.
That is certainly not the case as 2025 beckons.
With several rookies joining the grid on a full-time basis, some veterans finding new homes, and a living legend making a shocking move to a new team, the grid will look very different when the lights go out to start the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
That makes it a perfect time to sort out the status of each driver’s contract.
Some contracts are a bit of a mystery, with teams signing drivers to “multi-year” deals that are often understood to be for two seasons. Others, like Lance Stroll’s deal with Aston Martin, are even more nebulous.
Alpine
Pierre Gasly — 2026
Alpine signed Pierre Gasly to a two-year contract extension last June, that will keep him on the grid with the team through the 2026 season.
Jack Doohan — 2025
Last August Alpine announced that Jack Doohan, their reserve driver for the 2024 season, was getting the call for a full-time spot in 2025.
However, Doohan enters the season under a bit of pressure. Alpine recently announced the signing of supersub Franco Colapinto as a reserve driver, and rumors persist that Doohan’s contract may leave the door open for him to be replaced early in the season.
Aston Martin
Fernando Alonso — 2026
Fernando Alonso announced in April that he had signed a contract extension with Aston Martin that will keep him with the team through the 2026 season.
Alonso is set to turn 45 during that season, and is the oldest driver on the grid at the moment. He has not won a race since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix, but the addition of Adrian Newey to Aston Martin’s management team could provide the spark for his elusive 33rd Grand Prix victory.
Lance Stroll — “multi-year”
Last June Aston Martin announced a new deal for Lance Stroll, one that will keep him with the team for “2025 and beyond.”
It is largely believed that the second seat at Aston Martin is Stroll’s as long as he wants it, or as long as Lawrence Stroll remains in charge at Aston Martin.
Ferrari
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Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images
Charles Leclerc — “multi-year”
Ahead of the 2024 season Ferrari announced a new contract for Charles Leclerc.
However, the terms of that deal were not disclosed by the team. Speaking on social media Leclerc indicated that the new deal would keep him with the Scuderia for “several seasons to come.”
Lewis Hamilton — 2026 with an option for 2027
The 2024 F1 “silly season” kicked off early, when Lewis Hamilton made his shocking decision to leave Mercedes for Ferrari at the end of the season. The move was one of the most stunning decisions in the sport’s history, perhaps up there with Hamilton’s decision to leave McLaren for Mercedes for the start of the 2013 season.
Hamilton’s deal with Ferrari is considered a “multi-year” contract, two years with an option for a third season in 2027. Speaking last summer Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur let slip that the deal could keep Hamilton with Ferrari through 2027.
Haas
Haas is set to begin the 2025 season with an all-new driver lineup, one of the few F1 teams with a completely new look for the year ahead. Veteran driver Esteban Ocon joins from Alpine, and supersub Oliver Bearman has earned a full-time spot on the grid.
Esteban Ocon — 2026
Ocon announced last July that he was leaving Alpine for Haas, and the driver put pen to paper on a “multi-year” deal. According to multiple reports the contract is for two seasons.
Oliver Bearman — 2026
Haas announced ahead of last summer’s British Grand Prix that reserve — and supersub — Oliver Bearman had earned a seat with the team on a full-time basis starting in 2025. Like Ocon, Bearman’s contract was described as a “multi-year” deal, with reporting indicating that the contract runs through 2026.
McLaren
McLaren rose to the top of the F1 Constructors’ Championship, and their young driver pairing will be in Woking for at least a few more years.
Lando Norris — 2027
Prior to the 2024 F1 season McLaren announced a contract extension with Norris, whose contract was set to expire at the end of 2025. Now the new deal keeps Norris in papaya through at least 2027.
Oscar Piastri — 2026
In the fall of the 2023 season McLaren inked Oscar Piastri to a multi-year contract extension. That deal, signed during Piastri’s rookie campaign with the team, keeps Piastri in the fold through the 2026 campaign.
Mercedes
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Photo by Sam Bloxham/LAT Images
Andrea Kimi Antonelli — 2025
With Lewis Hamilton leaving for Ferrari, Mercedes made the decision to slide young phenom Andrea Kimi Antonelli into his seat. Antonelli has rocketed up the single-seater ranks, bypassing the international F3 series to head straight into the F2 Championship, where he finished sixth this past season.
Mercedes confirmed Antonelli for a full-time seat ahead of this past season’s Italian Grand Prix.
George Russell — 2025
In addition to Antonelli’s short-term deal with Mercedes, George Russell enters the 2025 campaign on the final year of his current contract. He signed a two-year extension with the Silver Arrows in the summer of 2023, keeping him with the team through the end of the 2025 season.
Racing Bulls
Yuki Tsunoda — 2025
Yuki Tsunoda is set to spend his fifth year at Red Bull’s junior team, now driving for the newly-renamed Visa Cash App Racing Bulls (VCARB) for the season ahead. Tsunoda was among the contenders vying for a promotion to Red Bull, but instead will be with VCARB on another one-year deal, which was announced ahead of the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix.
Isack Hadjar — 2025
Isack Hadjar joins the grid on a full-time basis for the 2025 season, earning a promotion after a strong F2 campaign. Hadjar went into the final race weekend of the F2 season with a chance at securing the F2 Drivers’ Championship, ultimately finishing just behind fellow incoming rookie Gabriel Bortoleto.
Hadjar is on a one-year deal at VCARB.
Red Bull
Max Verstappen — 2028
Max Verstappen’s contract with Red Bull runs through the 2028 F1 season.
However, that has not stopped rival Team Principals from trying to poach the driver from Milton Keynes, due in part to clauses within Verstappen’s contract that can give the driver reason to leave the team.
Those clauses were highlighted at the start of the 2024 season, when Team Principal Christian Horner faced an investigation into allegations of misconduct involving another Red Bull employee. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, perhaps trying to stir the pot a bit, took meetings with Verstappen’s manager and father during the 2024 campaign in an effort to sign the reigning Drivers’ Champion.
Liam Lawson — 2025
Red Bull made the decision at the end of a disappointing 2024 campaign for the team to part ways with veteran Sergio Pérez, sliding supersub Liam Lawson into that seat on a full-time basis. Lawson’s deal with Red Bull is for a single season, giving the team options should Lawson not live up to his potential.
Sauber
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2025 is the final season for Sauber in F1, ahead of the team rebranding as the Audi works operation in 2026.
With an eye to the present, and the future, the team announced an all-new driver pairing for the upcoming season. One driver is an incoming rookie fresh off an F2 Championship, the other is a veteran from Germany.
Nico Hulkenberg — 2026
Sauber’s 2025 lineup began with the announcement of Nico Hulkenberg, moving over from Haas to join the team ahead of Audi joining the grid as a works operation in 2026. Hulkenberg is coming off a strong season with Haas, as he finished 11th in the F1 Drivers’ Championship.
Audi signed Hulkenberg to a “multi-year” deal that, according to reports, runs through the 2026 season.
Gabriel Bortoleto — 2026
Joining Hulkenberg at Sauber in 2025 will be incoming rookie Gabriel Bortoleto, who claimed the F2 Drivers’ Championship this past season. With that accomplishment he became the fourth driver in the FIA F2 era to win the FIA F3 and the FIA F2 titles in successive years.
The other three drivers to accomplish that feat will be on the grid with Bortoleto this season: Charles Leclerc, George Russell, and Oscar Piastri.
Bortoleto’s deal runs through the 2026 season.
Williams
We now come to the final team on the grid, Williams.
James Vowles landed the biggest free agent in last season’s driver transfer market, securing the services of Carlos Sainz Jr. The former Ferrari driver began the year looking for a new seat when the team announced the addition of Lewis Hamilton for 2025 alongside Charles Leclerc, who inked a contract extension prior to the 2024 campaign.
Carlos Sainz Jr. — 2026 with options
When Williams announced the signing of Sainz in July, the team termed it as a two-year deal with “options to extend” the contract beyond the 2026 campaign.
Alexander Albon — 2026
Williams also announced a new contract for Alexander Albon last May, terming the contract as a “multi-year” extension. According to available reporting that deal runs through the 2026 campaign.
