COLUMBIA, Mo. – Formula One’s 75th anniversary season has come and gone ushering in the dawn of what could be the future of the sport. A new Drivers champion was crowned in English-born Lando Norris and Mclaren continued its blossoming dynasty with a second-straight Constructors trophy.
However, now the script has been flipped once again. The ground-effect era that lasted from 2022-25 has finally ended, making way for a lighter, nimbler and newer generation of F1 cars to hit the track. Promoted on the idea that active aerodynamics and new power units will allow for more on-track action, the 2026 season has the potential to be jaw-dropping as 22 drivers and 11 teams will duke it out once more for a spot at the top.
Listed below are my predictions for the 2026 F1 season:
Drivers Champion
With Norris’ Drivers Championship win in 2025, this means that four world champions will have spots on the grid in the upcoming season. Both Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton continue to defy father time with their age in the sport and yet both still believe they have the goods to add another championship to their resume. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen is coming off a historic run of form, with four-straight championship wins from 2021-24, only having lost to Norris last season by a mere two points.
This isn’t to say that a new champion couldn’t emerge from the talented crop of drivers waiting in the wings. George Russell, Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri all seem to have world-champion level talent, while young prodigies like Kimi Antonelli and Isack Hadjar could shock the world and stake their claim early into their F1 careers.
Ultimately, a drivers champion is often defined by the car at said driver’s disposal. When tenths of a second are what separates P1 from P10 on the starting grid for Sunday racing, the difference can be the car fine-tuned for championship-winning performance. One cannot win without the other and out of the 22 drivers on track, only a handful will have the car to back their bid to be the Drivers champion.
With that being said, I believe that at the end of 2026, the driver hoisting the championship trophy will be Oscar Piastri. A former F3 and F2 champion, the 24-year-old Australian took the fight to both Norris and Verstappen last season, leading the championship for much of the first half of the race calendar. In year four I think Piastri will continue to improve on his form behind the wheel and the pairing of a Mercedes power unit with the Mclaren team will be a deadly combination expected to excel nearly every race weekend.
Constructors Champion
Picking a Constructor to win in 2026 will in all likelihood be based on the power unit each team will have in this new era of regulations. For the upcoming season, five manufacturers will be supplying the 11 teams that take to the grid.
The largest supplier of power units will be Mercedes, who will support Mclaren, Williams and Alpine alongside its own racing team. The second largest will be the legendary Ferrari manufacturer, who will support itself, Haas and the new-to-the-grid Cadillac team. For the rest of the field, the engine-suppliers will be largely in-house. Aston Martin will begin its closely knit relationship with Honda, Red Bull will debut its new marriage with Ford in both the main and junior team, Racing Bulls, and Audi will have Audi units.
It will be a mix of fresh and familiar groups that support 11 teams, but only one will leave 2026 with the constructors crown. The team to become Constructors Champion will be Mercedes.
One can say it is a tad irresponsible to pick against the ever-increasing dominance of Mclaren, but the evidence lies in the very relationship Mclaren and Mercedes will have this season. Mclaren is a Mercedes’ customer team, in a new era of power units and systems that could be the difference maker between 43 points for a 1-2 team finish and 27 points for a 3-4 finish. Mercedes will be the first to learn how to operate and fine-tune its engine for peak performance, while Mclaren, Williams and Alpine will all have to gather their understanding as the season develops. FIA regulations mandate that customer teams receive the same hardware and software specifications, but when it comes down to it, Mercedes will always be first in line.
Additionally, Mercedes has history to back its bid to be the champions once again. Toto Wolff, Team Principal of Mercedes, will be the first to admit that from 2022-25, the constructor missed the mark on understanding the ground-effect era of regulations that other teams hit the jackpot on. Throughout the F1 rumor mill, it seems Mercedes hasn’t missed this time, as reports suggest it has nailed the performance aspect of the 50:50 split between internal combustion and hybrid power. Despite this, Wolff has remained adamant that it is too early to declare the German-constructor the hands on favorite.
“We are never confident. We are glass-half-empty people, never half-full,” Wolff said.
Final Thoughts
2026 is already shaping up to be a stellar season of F1 racing. Cadillac and Audi have finally arrived on the grid and the recognizable players have clearly thrown on a fresh coat of paint and put together their best in the engineering room. If there were ever a time to become a fan of the greatest sport on wheels, now would be the time.