Opinion: Fantasy booking the 2026 Formula One World Championship

On the eve of the (delayed) 2020 Formula One season, our F1 writer Gareth Hall takes us on an editorial on where F1 could be heading over the next 6 years. Going into a year with so much uncertainty, there’s every opportunuty for the future to be just as unprecedented. So with that said…

Shall we have some fun?

Let’s get the DeLorean up to 88mph and take a trip into the future and look at what the world of Formula One looks like and how team grid may look. (Disclaimer – I do not own a time machine, and this will almost certainly be wrong).

(Hazy time vortex)

We arrive, it’s March 2026 and after Melbourne just managed to make a last minute deal to extend its contract to hold a race after 2023, the Australian GP is in its final appearance before being dropped from the F1 calendar.

The calendar has seen an explosion of street circuits as Liberty Media look to increase viewership with ‘location’ races. The days of the historical circuits are being left behind leaving only a handful of former icons on the annual line-up.

After 2023 saw a mammoth 25 races, the 2026 season now sits at 24 races held over six continents.

The mixture of the effects after 2020’s Coronavirus Pandemic, F1 becoming more and more under threat from Formula E’s challenge and the wider Motorsports audience indifference towards the status quo in Formula One. After the dominance of Mercedes ended with Lewis Hamilton’s retirement after equalling Michael Schumacher’s seven World titles after the 2020 season, challenged F1 to vary up the calendar and open up the floor to new teams.

Formula One’s management Liberty Media Corporation have in recent years been adding new locations to the F1 calendar with the hope of appealing to new audiences in the likes of the Middle East and North America.

Chase Carey has made it his mission since taking control of Formula One to increase the sports visibility to new fans, and while the introduction of ‘location races’ did not take off in the way Liberty intended, there is still a mix of street and circuit tracks, but with Formula E attracting more and more Cities to be open to hosting races, Formula One has engaged in trying to restart circuits viability in the likes of South Korea, India and Indonesia.

The calendar has been streamlined to involve the least amount of travel between races with regions hosting races in a block – (except for the European season, which has been split in two either side of the summer break).

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Let’s reflect on some of the main points compared to the calendar that was in use for the late teens/early 2020’s.

Australia, Bahrain and China all retain their places in the early season with 2020’s addition Vietnam making the start of the season take place in a mixture of Middle East/South East Asia/Australia.

Round five is the introduction to a two week stint in North America as the first double header of the season at Formula One’s long-term goal Miami. The race receives mixed reviews each year with local residents still opposed to the race, but fans enjoying the south Florida location. It arrived on the grid in 2022 and is under contract until 2028.

Montreal maintains its place on the calendar and in past seasons has added names like Max Verstappen and George Russell as Formula One champions who have hit the infamous ‘Wall of Champions’.

The ‘European’ Grand Prix name hadn’t been seen on the F1 calendar since 2016 and Baku’s first appearance in F1. However, after 2020 introduced extra circuits to counter-act the COVID-19 Pandemic there was an appetite for circuits that perhaps couldn’t afford an annual race to be involved in Formula One.

Therefore, the European Grand Prix returned in 2022 with Hockenheim, Algarve (Portimao) and a returning Magny-Cours to replace the declining attendance at Circuit Paul Ricard all sharing races on a three year rotation as fans clamour to see more ‘classic’ circuits.

Max Verstappen’s passionate fan-base ensure than F1 will stay in the Netherlands for the foreseeable future, although the racing is never amazing with a lack of overtaking, it has nevertheless seen some stunning wins for Max on home soil.

Formula One’s jewel in the crown Monaco retains its place on the calendar. However, the circuit has a slight layout change with the track being made three corners long as the cars turn left at the Mirabeau Bas instead of directly into Portier and use a roundabout before an extra long blast into the tunnel adding an even more frightening braking zone for the Nouvelle chicane.

A second consecutive street circuit Marrakech is round 10, with equally new track Qiddiyah in Saudi Arabia are next up as Liberty look to increase popularity in the Middle-East and equally return F1 to Africa for the first time since South Africa in 1993.

Qiddiyah is an incredible state-of-the-art facility, but polarises fans with its forced glitz and style reminds all too much of Abu Dhabi, but with the longest circuit on the calendar, it is certainly a test for the drivers in the sweltering early summer sun.

Russia dropped the Sochi Autodrom at the end of 2021 and moved further north to the St Petersburg circuit, it’s slowly becoming one of the most under rated circuits on the calendar and fans that were bored to tears by Sochi are flooding to the historic city to see this new Grand Prix.

Baku in summer? It’s hot, but it’s a stunning destination for a holiday and F1 moves it just before the summer break in late July, the higher temperatures play havoc with the tyres, but make the racing way more strategic.

F1 returns after the summer break at a brand new ‘location’ race. Silverstone’s love/hate relationship with F1 is currently over after not being able to extend their deal on lowered terms, but in place F1 managed to secure the streets of some of the most iconic locations in London for the first ever ‘Grand Prix of London’.

After London, we head to Scandinavia and the Kymi Ring after Finland began hosting from 2024 allowing fans of the Scandinavia’s to access F1 much closer to home for the first time since 1978, and with drivers such as Hakkinen, Raikkonen and Bottas in Finland’s past, it’s only a matter of time before the next Finnish star hits the F1 grid.

Belgium, Hungary, Austria and Italy all maintain a home on the calendar with Monza clinging onto life after being under threat of losing the Italian Grand Prix several times, but with Ferrari still in F1, the Tifosi still have the Temple of Speed to visit every year.

The final five races still look similar but have changes.

Circuit of the Americas still holds a Grand Prix, but the lure of Miami is making the event less popular and there’s talk to replacing it with a Grand Prix in California or New York for 2027 onwards.

Mexico City reappeared after missing 2022-2025 due to financial restrictions after COVID-19, but the Mexico City government use it to draw in tourists to help Mexico re-build after the Pandemic.

Equally Brazil, who were hit incredibly hard saw their new circuit in Rio de Janeiro delayed until it was introduced in 2023, but eventually the iconic, albeit tired Interlagos was retired and needs some well needed TLC to get it back to operational standard.

Japan swaps its Grand Prix between Suzuka and Fuji as it did in the late 2000’s as Toyota continually eye up a return to a cheaper F1 after their expensive failure in the 2000’s. Honda equally gets Suzuka as its home Grand Prix, but realised that opening up the Japanese audience meant taking it to different venues.

Finally, and seemingly forever we end up in Abu Dhabi. The circuit is still the empty car park themed layout, but the draw of extra money each year to stage the final race of the season is too much for Liberty to turn down. Even in 2026 we are yet to see a truly great Grand Prix in the UAE.

Teams and Drivers

This is where it gets fun!

Now, let me get this out the way immediately. Mercedes-AMG are gone, at least they aren’t the team that power-housed the V6 Turbo-Hybrid era’s beginnings.

Mercedes leave the sport after Toto Wolff moved to Aston Martin, and when Lewis Hamilton retired, but they didn’t box everything up, no! They have put all their stock into McLaren, and once again the name McLaren-Mercedes has been a front runner for the past three years and partners British talent in now 2022 and 2025 World Champion George Russell and Lando Norris.

Ferrari are declining. Indycar and the World Endurance Championship have become a distraction, and with Mercedes moving their focus to Formula E, Maranello is strongly considering doing the same and going against their age old ethos as the electric age truly starts to explode.

Ferrari have put everything into Charles Leclerc being the de-facto leader since 2020, but after his 2021 World Championship win Ferrari have declined and Carlos Sainz Jr was replaced by Mick Schumacher in 2023 as the Tifosi campaigned hard to see a Schumacher back in a Ferrari.

Post Coronavirus Formula One needed to make major changes to keep itself afloat, so races in the likes of Saudi Arabia, Russia and Abu Dhabi are major bonuses, but budget caps being dropped even further has opened the door to many new teams who previously saw no value in F1.

Andretti Autosport have joined with Honda power as a second American team, whilst Russian team SMP Racing use Ferrari engines and dip into the Ferrari Driver Academy after their switch from endurance racing in 2022.

SMP signed Russian’s Robert Schwartzman from Alfa Romeo in 2022 and 22 year old Irina Sidorkova with the young Russian female proving she was more than capable of making it to F1 with some very strong results in Super Formula and Formula Two. SMP look poised to be a front running team this season.

Andretti drew Pato O’Ward back over from Indycar after chasing Colton Herta, but ultimately Herta chose to add to his two Indycar Championships as O’Ward would come and partner Alex Albon who makes a return to F1 after a two season spell in Formula E after leaving Formula One in 2023.

In 2024 Renault were de-funded in France for their F1 programme, but their assets were bought by Carlin as Trevor Carlin finally makes the jump into F1 after running in the junior Formula and Indycar for so long. He uses Renault engines as the French manufacture purely focuses on engines rather than a full team.

Carlin maintained Chinese driver Guanyu Zhou from his time in Renault and in 2025 they added Barbadian superstar Zane Maloney to partner Zhou. Maloney had won F3 in 2023 and finished runner-up in F2 in 2024 as part of Carlin and had long been touted the ‘next’ Lewis Hamilton.

Aston Martin have become a force in F1 and after seizing Max Verstappen from Red Bull in 2023 and with Lance Stroll playing a solid number two to the Dutchman, Max is now a two-time F1 champion (23′ and 24′).

Red Bull continue, but Helmut Marko is gone, and now young drivers are given much more time to acclimatise and learn in the Red Bull Junior teams leading to a much more harmonious team.

Red Bull signed Carlos Sainz Jr to lead the team after his departure from Ferrari in 2023 and in 2025 paired him with Alpha Tauri graduate and Honda Formula Dream project star Yuki Tsunoda as the Japanese engine manufacture worked hard to get a Japanese driver into a race winning car.

Teams like Haas, Alpha Tauri and Alfa Romeo are still in F1 and all pick up midfield places each season after the budget cap and new car designs grouped the field up significantly.

Gene Haas has built his team around two drivers over the past 2 seasons in Pietro Fittipaldi leading the charge and F1 stalwart Sergio Perez entering his fifteenth year in F1 having announced this would be his final season.

Alpha Tauri immediately saw the potential of Juju Noda when the 14 year old Japanese driver burst onto the scene in 2020 and immediately Honda rushed to secure her signature and move her into the Red Bull Junior programme, she partners New Zealand’s Liam Lawson who became New Zealand’s first driver since Brendon Hartley raced for predecessor ‘Toro Rosso’.

Alfa Romeo signed Artur Leclerc in 2023, but the younger brother of Charles is yet to show the same pace that took Charles to a World Championship in 2021. He is joined by Dino Beganovic, who has been catching the eye of Ferrari, and the Swedish driver is primed for a move to the parent team in the new few seasons after lighting up the junior formula’s for Prema.

The only team left is F1 legends Williams, their struggles in the 2018-2021 season were well documented, but selling off naming rights in 2021, it opened the door to Porsche to re-enter in a limited capacity with Williams. The German team invested in F1 on a naming rights brand deal, but whilst still developing their own engine in conjunction with Audi has demanded Williams to swap Mercedes for Renault power. They secured Jamie Chadwick as a driver in 2022 after the former W Series and 2021 F3 champion finished fourth in the 2022 F2 Championship.

She partners Esteban Ocon who lost his seat when Renault left F1 at Carlin, but found a home at the midfield workhorses Williams, Ocon never lived up to the early hype after his Racing Point days, but is a solid points scorer most races.

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That’s the line up and the teams for F1 2026, but who wins? Well that’s where you decide!

Let us know who you think will be making up the F1 grid in six years time. Who from the current crop of drivers will still be there, will Formula E start stealing talent from F1 and who will be the next F1 superstar!?

In the mean time, roll on 2020…