F1 2026 Teams and Drivers: Complete Lineup and Team Changes

The 2026 Formula 1 grid contains 11 teams and 22 nominated race drivers. Cadillac creates two genuinely new seats, while Audi takes over the existing Sauber entry. That distinction explains why the team list looks dramatically different even though most established pairings stayed together.

Inside the existing 10-team structure, the decisive move was Isack Hadjar's promotion from Racing Bulls to Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen. Arvid Lindblad graduated into Hadjar's old seat and is the season's only true F1 rookie. Cadillac then brought Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas back to race action after both spent 2025 outside the starting grid.

McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari, Williams, Aston Martin and Haas all retained both drivers from the end of 2025. Alpine also kept the Gasly–Colapinto combination it had used after its mid-season switch, while Audi preserved Sauber's Hülkenberg–Bortoleto pairing. The regulation reset therefore changed the machinery and manufacturer map more than it changed the people in the cockpits.

This guide first gives the complete pairing, number and power-unit table, then separates four kinds of change that are often blurred together: a permanent driver move, a new entrant, a renamed works team and a new engine relationship. It also explains why an event-specific substitute does not automatically rewrite the season lineup. Use it alongside the live 2026 F1 schedule as the championship moves from weekend to weekend.

This is the season's nominated 11-team lineup, cross-checked against the FIA entry list for the Australian opener and Formula 1's current team index. The constructor column matters for this season because an entrant's commercial team name can hide its engine supplier.

What counts as the official lineup?

A season roster is the nominated pairing attached to each entrant. The FIA's Grand Prix entry list is the sharper tool for a particular weekend because it identifies exactly who may drive each car at that event. The opening Australian list supplies a clean baseline: all 22 nominated drivers appeared with the team and constructor combinations shown above.

This distinction prevents a common update error. If a reserve replaces an injured driver for one race, the weekend entry changes, but the underlying team pairing is not automatically a permanent transfer. The substitute section below shows how to read that status.

Which driver numbers changed?

Reigning champion Lando Norris chose number 1, replacing his usual 4 for 2026. Max Verstappen stopped using the champion's number and moved from 33 to 3. Lindblad selected 41 for his rookie season. Those are the three numbers most likely to make an older lineup graphic look wrong; Formula 1 and the FIA both show 41, not the number 17 carried by some pre-season third-party tables.

Why are there 11 teams and 22 seats?

Cadillac passed the FIA and Formula One Management sporting, technical and commercial assessments to join the existing 10 entrants. Its arrival therefore adds two cars and two race seats. Audi is different: it transforms the Sauber operation into a factory entry while retaining Hülkenberg and Bortoleto. Counting Audi as an addition would incorrectly create a 12-team grid.

The permanent reshuffle is easier to understand as one chain. Red Bull promoted Hadjar, Racing Bulls filled his seat with Lindblad, and Tsunoda moved into reserve duty. Cadillac's approval then created two extra seats, allowing Pérez and Bottas to return without displacing drivers at another team.

Hadjar steps up to Red Bull

Hadjar earned the seat beside Verstappen after a 2025 rookie season that included points in 10 Grands Prix and a podium at Zandvoort. The promotion followed Red Bull's established internal ladder, but the competitive context was severe: he became the latest driver asked to make the jump from the sister team into the second senior-team car.

The corresponding move was Yuki Tsunoda leaving the permanent race lineup. Red Bull kept him as reserve for both teams rather than ending the relationship. That detail matters later in the season: a reserve can return for a specific event without undoing the original Hadjar promotion.

Lindblad becomes the only 2026 rookie

Racing Bulls placed Lindblad, number 41, alongside Lawson after a rapid Red Bull junior progression. His final Formula 2 season produced three wins, two other podiums and sixth place on 134 points. A 139-lap post-season test gave the team another evaluation point, but a test lap time is not a reliable prediction of Grand Prix pace.

Lawson's continuity is as important as Lindblad's arrival. With Hadjar promoted, Lawson became the driver who already understood the team's working routines and recent car behavior. That does not make him a formal number one; it simply reduces the amount of shared experience lost during the change.

Pérez and Bottas return with Cadillac

Cadillac chose the opposite route from Racing Bulls. Instead of using its two new seats for rookies, it signed Bottas and Pérez—16 Grand Prix wins and more than 500 starts between them when announced. Both had last raced full-time in 2024 and spent 2025 outside the race grid, with Bottas serving as Mercedes reserve.

For a debut team, experienced drivers can standardize feedback, recognize operational problems and distinguish unfamiliar car behavior from unfamiliar F1 procedure. That is an engineering-development advantage, not a guarantee of points. Cadillac still had to build a new car, establish race-weekend systems and learn how its package behaved against 10 operations with existing data.

Bottom line: Red Bull, Racing Bulls and Cadillac account for the obvious cockpit change. Elsewhere, the central story is continuity—valuable for interpreting a regulation reset, but never a guarantee of reliability, speed or equal treatment between team-mates. Treat the pairings as the stable baseline, then judge the new machines with event results rather than reputation.

The simplest test: if a fan asks why there are 22 cars, Cadillac is the answer. Audi explains why the Sauber name disappeared, not why the field became larger.