There’s always next year in sports, and the grid for the 2025 Formula One season is almost set amid a flurry of activity.
Seventeen spots have now been filled following Friday’s news that Jack Doohan will move into the second Alpine seat. That leaves only three seats to be determined.
Here’s how the grid looks for next season with the latest news and reports.
Updated: Friday, Aug. 23
ALPINE
2024: Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon
2025: Pierre Gasly, Jack Doohan
Before Alpine even announced either of its drivers for next year, it had already let it be known Esteban Ocon wouldn’t be back. That news came in early June, just over a week after an embarrassing incident during the Monaco Grand Prix when Ocon crashed into teammate Pierre Gasly. It wasn’t the first incident between the two French drivers who have been frenemies since childhood.
Ocon, who earned his first career victory with the team at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix, will depart Alpine after five seasons and join Haas next year.
The team signed Gasly to a multi-year extension in late June and announced just after the summer break in August that Jack Doohan will make his F1 debut with the team next season. The 21-year-old Australian driver finished third in the Formula 2 championship last year and has served as its reserve driver.
Alpine even poked fun at the 2022 Oscar Piastri fiasco (aka the Piasco) when it prematurely announced it had promoted him to the F1 team.
ASTON MARTIN
2024: Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll
2025: Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll
The ageless Fernando Alonso signed a contract extension with Aston Martin in April. Alonso, who will be 43 years old when the 2025 season begins, has had a bit of a career renaissance since joining the team, earning eight podiums and finishing fourth in the championship during the 2023 season. The two-time world champion also scored points through the first six grands prix this year.
No surprise, Canada’s Lance Stroll re-signed with Aston Martin as well. His father, Lawrence Stroll, owns the team after all.
“The consistency and stability of both Lance and Fernando remaining with our team is a great platform to continue to realize our ambitions,” team principal Mike Krack said, when Stroll’s extension was announced. “We look forward to creating some incredible memories and achieving further success together.”
FERRARI
2024: Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz
2025: Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton
Ferrari announced it had signed Charles Leclerc to an extension on Jan. 25, only to shift silly season into top gear (before the season even began) with a blockbuster announcement just days later that it had signed Lewis Hamilton to a multi-year contract beginning in 2025. Hamilton will be 40 next year, but he’s still driven (pardon the pun) to win a record-breaking eighth world championship.
That left Carlos Sainz as the odd man out, and the highly coveted free agent who was linked to just about every team on the grid is taking his talents to Williams. Sainz has earned three wins with Ferrari, including this year’s Australian Grand Prix.
HAAS
2024: Nico Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen
2025: Oliver Bearman, Esteban Ocon
Things had been quiet at Haas, a little too quiet, as it was the last team to make any driver announcements.
That all changed on July 4 with the news that Oliver Bearman had signed a multi-year contract. The 19-year-old competes in F2 and is a reserve driver for both Ferrari and Haas. He made his F1 debut during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, filling in for Sainz, who missed the race while recovering from emergency appendix surgery. Bearman finished seventh to earn six points and is still 14th in the championship — higher than seven full-time drivers.
As it turned out, it’ll be a complete overhaul for Haas as the team confirmed Ocon for the second seat on July 25. Ocon will become the first grand prix winner to race for Haas in team history.
Nico Hulkenberg will join Sauber, but Kevin Magnussen’s future remains unknown.
McLAREN
2024: Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri
2025: Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri
No changes are coming to McLaren, and for good reason, as Piastri earned his extension through to the end of 2026 during his rookie campaign last year while Norris inked a multi-year contract in January.
McLaren has returned to top form with Norris and Piastri, and is a serious threat to Red Bull for the constructors’ championship. Both drivers have earned their first career grand prix wins this year with Norris victorious in Miami and Piastri taking the checkered flag in Hungary.
MERCEDES
2024: Lewis Hamilton, George Russell
2025: George Russell, TBD
George Russell re-signed with Mercedes on Aug. 31, 2023 — the same day the team announced it had also extended Hamilton for two years. Yeah, about that. As it turned out, Hamilton had an option for the second year and decided to join Ferrari instead. Oops.
Mercedes has a strong junior program (of which Russell was a graduate) and could turn to top prospect Kimi Antonelli for the second seat. The 17-year-old Italian fast-tracked through the ladder system, skipping F3 to race in F2 this season. Antonelli had his first test session with Mercedes in Austria in April and participated in another test session a couple of weeks later at Imola. If he’s not ready yet, Mercedes are keen to have him in the seat eventually.
“We want to focus on Kimi — that is our future,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff told Sky Sports F1.
RB
2024: Yuki Tsunoda, Daniel Ricciardo
2025: Yuki Tsunoda, TBD
Both seats were open for next season until RB announced just ahead of qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix in June that it had picked up the one-year option on Yuki Tsunoda’s contract.
Will Daniel Ricciardo return? The 35-year-old could be on the hot seat with Liam Lawson waiting in the wings. Lawson, 22, is the reserve driver for both Red Bull and sibling team RB and did an admirable job filling in for five grands prix last season when Ricciardo was recovering from a hand injury.
RED BULL
2024: Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez
2025: Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez
Three-time reigning world champion Max Verstappen is in it for the long haul, saying he will honour his contract with Red Bull to 2028.
Sergio Perez was the big question mark as a pending free agent, but Red Bull answered that by signing him to a two-year contract extension on June 4. Perez has aided Red Bull in capturing back-to-back constructors’ championships — with the team No. 1 in the standings this year as well — but he hasn’t stepped on the podium since China in April and sits seventh in the standings. Despite his struggles, Red Bull are sticking with Perez for now.
SAUBER
2024: Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu
2025: Nico Hulkenberg, TBD
Sauber has one spot filled for next season and it’s neither of its current drivers. Veteran journeyman Nico Hulkenberg, who drove for Sauber in 2013, announced in April he will be rejoining the team next season. The lone German driver on the grid will arrive a year ahead of Audi’s rebranding of the team in 2026.
That could leave Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu to duel for the final spot or it could be a total house cleaning for Sauber if a new challenger arrives.
WILLIAMS
2024: Alex Albon, Logan Sargeant
2025: Alex Albon, Carlos Sainz
Alex Albon was already under contract for next season and signed (you guessed it) a multi-year contract extension in May.
Williams won the Carlos Sainz sweepstakes as the Ferrari driver was left without a ride when the team inked Charles Leclerc to an extension and signed Lewis Hamilton for next season. The veteran Sainz, who is a three-time grand prix winner, has driven 10 seasons in F1, and Williams will mark his fifth different team.
Logan Sargeant loses his seat, and the American driver will have a tough time finding another. Sargeant has earned just one point during his two-year tenure with Williams. Will an IndyCar team come calling?