After one of the “silly seasons” of the Maximum Turbulent motifs market in 2024, only two groups, McLaren and Aston Martin, will enter the new crusade with the same program that crossed most of last year.
Many drivers have not only moved teams, but have written contracts of several years that attach them to replace in cars and technical regulations of 2026. This suggests that this can be a quieter year for driver’s motion.
Advertisement
The curve in 2026 is the expected arrival of Cadillac in the F1 grid as eleventh team, opening two seats for interested drivers.
It can be a starting task with many paintings that will be made before queu Several controllers. The working groups that create their own engines sometimes have deeper resources than the groups of visitors, which gives them an advantage.
But while Cadillac begins to provide the plans of your entry F1, what are the pilots who will interest the program? Here are six characteristics probably to be in your radar.
This wonders that Colton Herta’s call came to the rumor factory, again.
Mario Andretti, director of the Board of Directors of Cadillac F1, has been inaugurated in recent months on how the force of American motifs has been a candidate from the beginning, when Andretti Global first directed the offer. The task has sought to be an All-American team.
The 24 -year -old Old has contributed to Andretti to Indycar for 4 years, and cannot forget his raw rhythm. Herta, who is the youngest force to win a career of Indycar, won nine victories, 18 podiums and 14 positions through 99 exits. Its functionality has been inconsistent, and there have been out of control disorders, such as mechanical disorders, equipment errors or the strategy that does not extend.
The most productive season of Herta to date was last year when he ended at the end with two victories, 3 polo stations and six podiums. Beyond the Festival for Andretti Global, there is a deeper non -public connection: its sponsors, adding Gainbridge. Dan Towriss has Gainbridge and took Andretti Global the past autumn when Michael Andretti came out here an operating role.
Herta has already been one of the silly rumors of the season. He thought as an F1 prospect in 2022. Red Bull saw him to update Pierre Gasly at the Era-Alphauri. Gasly still under contract at that time, but Alpine had asked about the Frenchman.
The challenge, which remains today, is that Heta did not have enough problems for its super fia license, allowing a force force to compete in F1. A driving force will have to sure 40 problems during a season of 3 actions, and it is difficult to know how much officially has a force of motive. Herta ended tenth in 2023 (one point) and a moment last year (30 problems), therefore, he had at least 31 problems before the 2025 season, which begins on March 2. A fourth position this year would make it the end of the remaining nine issues; However, there are other tactics whose motor forces can surely complete one hundred kilometers in an education session F1. And the FIA can make an exception, which he did not do for Herta in 2022.
Advertisement
Herta can have the speed in Indycar, but passing F1 would be a challenge. It has very little delights with the F1 clues or the Pirelli tires, apart from its TPC adventure with McLaren in Portimão, Portugal, in 2022 and a junior formula race are delighted.
Assuming that GM has the same preference as a global Treti, made an American motor force as a component of its range, Jak Crawford is not a call to negligence. The 19 -year -old Old is the American motive force on the European motor game scale, which returns to game games in Formula Two this year after completing the fifth place last season.
He moved to Europe at a semi -permanent foundation in the Get Get Eyezed in Get Get Bened of his adolescence, and 2018 was the first time he traveled alone, Crawford told Aston Martin. It begins to participate in Formula 4 in Europe in 2020, to run in the Italian and German series and register in the Junior team of Red Bull the same year. He stayed with the team based on Milton Keynes when he was at the Festival in Formula 3 with the Hiech Grand Prix in 2021 (finishing 13) and Prema Racing in 2022 (ending seventh).
Crawford went to F2 in 2023 and joined the Aston Martin Young Pilots progression program last year. He has reviewed with the team since his access last February, specifically through driving the 2022 car to Red Bull Ring in June and in the control of the young force after the season in Abu Dhabi in December.
Crawford is an American herb -covered clearness and is a component of the Global Circle of Andretti relatives. In November, the news announced that it would be a reserve force for its Formula E team, several months after its debut in the recruit test. Fans have noticed how F1 groups have invested in recruitment reasons for the 2025 season, and if GM makes the decision to continue a diversity of pilots that includes a recruit with a delight in the European food series (and Aston Martin does not have an open seat), Crawford can be a possible option.
Advertisement
2025 will be the first time in 15 years that Sergio Pérez is not in the F1 grid. The end of his time with Red Bull was not a big surprise, given the intensity of his difficulties in his last season. But that does not necessarily mean that it is the end of your career time in F1.
Pérez Made ITS First Primary public appearance since ITS OF SIEGE AN OCCASION IN LEÓN, MEXICO, LAST WEEKEND. He was received through an exceptional crowd, evidence of the tie that helps to maintain, and said he appreciated his new loose time without the tensions of the preparation of a new season. “I Feel Different, and That is Anything I Have Never Known Before,” Said Pérez. “So i’m utterly Happy. ” He said he would spend the next six months to see whether or not he continues to return to F1, but admitted that he was excited about his future.
Thank you, you went to an exexit! ✅
More than 11 thousand attendees listened to Perez, a transformed life story, an example of perseverance and returns. To you, what did you encourage you? 🙏🏻 pic. twitter. com/p56PFOEK3
– León Fair (@Feriadeon) January 11, 2025
Pérez would be 36 years old when Cadillac made his debut, a viable age to run. It would be the best profiled loose agent with newly committed during a F1 championship operation, which would obtain advantages a team of new companies. It also has a massive advertising charm thanks to its sponsorship in Mexico, which was one thing in the Red Bull resolution to point it out by 2021. Again, for a new participant, it would be a very useful impulse.
The greatest fear in Pérez would be its form. The decrease that entered Miami in F1 last year, which charges the Red Brands Championship in the Las Brands Championship and in Pérez with the team. Although we never expected he could be at the point of Max Verstappen, to have fallen so that he can temporarily worry about any interested team.
Pérez would skip the possibility of relaunching his F1 career with Cadillac, and there are many things that he can bring to the team. It is whether the last year in Red Bull would be too much a red flag so that the leadership of the team would do so.
Similar to Pérez, Valtteri Bottas gives a veteran delight that GM deserves when discovering the Cadillac F1 range.
Possibly he would not have a pilot championship with his name, however, the force of Finnish reasons that began with five manufacturers championships in the race for Mercedes. Bottas left the team at the end of 2021, while George Russell joined the team and moved to Sauber, who turned out to be a sensitive chapter. In Beyond 3 Seasons, he has not won a race, on the podium or the Safe Pole, while Sauber has fought with his car, especially in recent years. Bottas obtained 59 problems combined in 2022 and 2023, but none last year.
Advertisement
Sauber has to review his diversity of drivers for this season before Audi began in 2026, leaving Bottas without a complete seat. However, the type of 35 years will remain in the world of F1, while returning to Mercedes as a reserve driver.
The Finnish reason spoke with Cadillac and unearthed “an attractive project. ” When obtaining the role of a reserve force in 2025, Bottas remains applicable in the global F1 and can restore a bit, but also benefits from running with one of the most productive network equipment. Its wealth of delegations (which includes knowing which strong car and championship car, as a less competitive car) can shape the long execution of Cadillac F1, at least those first days.
When Zhou’s passage with Sauber ended in 2024, he obviously indicated that he sought to maintain a type of participation in sport, preferably by obtaining a reserve driver role. His plan was to spend his year while “hopefully we hope for an intelligent opportunity to return. ” Choosing this delight in the scenes, especially with a leading team, can be useful in Cadillac.
At 25, there is a lot of time for Zhou to continue this growth. The moment was never really in his appearance that he remains in Sauber. The team was the fastest in early 2022 when it was recruited and still learned the f1 strings. In his last season, his shape had fallen insufficiently, allowing him running back. The eighth eighth in Qatar was a well -timed reminder in the global F1 of what it can do, collecting the only Sauber problems of the 2024 season.
A vital link for Zhou in Cadillac has the form of the director of the Graeme Lowdon team, which has been concerned with the assignment for more than a year and demonstrated in its role in December. Lowdon is also the manager of Zhou, which means that he knows directly what an effect on the Chinese motor force has on the right path, as well as the possible advertising attraction.
Zhou would ride the barriers among other young people and the experience of Cadillac, however, there would be a preference to see the progress of his year. He lost his head in his head with Bottas 21-3 in 2024, his race speed is closer, the final score ends 12-8 in favor of Bottas.
Zhou would not be the leader of any of the criteria that Cadillac would possibly have in mind, however, it can also be a flexible decent option.
Advertisement
The fact that the maximum reasons for forces begin a contract of several years in 2025 means that if Cadillac were to a motor force lately on the network, their characteristics would be limited (or expensive).
But the attention can be Yuki Tsunoda, who will imagine his long career after being rejected through Red Bull in favor of Liam Lawson for a headquarters in the most productive team this year.
Red Bull is completely aware that Tsunoda probably thinks of other openings, as long as he cannot offer an opportunity in the most productive team. “You can’t have a pilot in the help team for five years,” said team director Christian Horner in December. “You can’t be the Lady of Honor. You will have to let them happen at that time or look at something different. “
Tsunoda’s career has been supported through Honda since its F4, which means that there is an apparent link with Aston Martin by 2026 because it becomes the Honda Works team. But with Fernando Alonso and Lance they walk in contracts of several years, unless there is a replacement of the center through a force force or the team, there will not be an available race seat.
So what happens to Cadillac? In Tsunoda, the team would download a dazzlingly fast pilot that showed a progression step every year, as well as a known “name” of the existing field. It would be an intelligent sheet for a complete recruit while it is young enough for a larger and more experienced driver, if the team will adhere to this path.
Joining a new team has a threat element, especially at the beginning of a new regulatory cycle. But if Tsunoda does not see a long race in Red Bull and needs to pass from bulls to race after six seasons, it can be an attractive step with many benefits for Cadillac.
Upper Photo: Jeremy Hogan / Soup images / Lightrocket, Rudy Casezzzevoli, Marcus Brandt / Picture Alliance, Frederic J. Brown / AFP Getty Images