Lawrence Barretto

Melbourne’s Albert Park was rocking as a highly-anticipated Friday practice got under way ahead of what could be Formula 1’s closest ever season. And while teams were keen to keep their cards close to their respective chests, a pecking order of sorts has started to emerge.

With their formal entry onto the Formula 1 grid for 2026 now approved, the Cadillac Formula 1 Team can now enter the driver market and zero in on which two drivers they want to take the wheel in their debut season. There are a plethora of options available to them, including some exciting American talent and experienced F1 racers. Here are the leading contenders.

In September 2020, Claire Williams left Formula 1 – the sport that had been hers and her family’s home for more than 40 years – following the sale of the Williams team.

Formula 1 will have a new kid on the block in 2026, with news that the Cadillac Formula 1 Team has been given the green light to join the grid and become the sport’s 11th team.

The lights will be on at each and every Formula 1 team's factory through this weekend as they battle through the reams of data they collected across three days of pre-season testing in Bahrain.

And that’s that – Lewis Hamilton has had all the testing he’s going to get with his new Ferrari team before he heads down under for the season opening Australian Grand Prix.

Thirty-eight days after Lewis Hamilton first set foot in Maranello as an official Ferrari driver (and took the now iconic photo of him dressed in an all-black suit and coat outside Enzo Ferrari’s office, which broke the internet) the seven-time World Champion will get his first real taste of what kind of machinery he’ll have to fight with in 2025 when he takes part in the official three-day pre-season test in Bahrain.

McLaren proved last year that they could deliver a sustained tilt at the title by overhauling Red Bull to win their first constructors’ championship since 1998.

Haas owner Gene Haas will not put a single cent of his own money into his Formula 1 team for the upcoming season – for the first time since they entered the sport in 2016. But on top of that, the American squad are also set to become profitable.

After eating what felt like my own bodyweight in turkey, roast potatoes and an allotment’s worth of root vegetables, I settled into the sofa to ponder what lies ahead in 2025 after one of the most unpredictable seasons in decades, and have landed on my five bold predictions for the year ahead. Here goes…