For as much as Lewis Hamilton has struggled in his first year with Ferrari, specifically throughout the second half of the 2025 Formula 1 season, he has a contract that runs through the 2026 season and has no plans to call it quits before then.
The full 11-team, 22-driver lineup, featuring newcomers Cadillac and their driver duo of Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, is now set, and Hamilton remains a part of it, once again alongside Charles Leclerc at Ferrari.
But following an offseason which saw an incredible 11 of 20 seats change hands across eight of the sport's 10 current teams, only one driver who has competed in Formula 1 this year is not set to return to the grid in 2026.
Yuki Tsunoda out at Red Bull after 2025
Two offseasons ago marked the first time in Formula 1 history that there were zero driver changes from one year to the next, and this year into 2026 is set to be about as close as it gets to achieving that level of continuity.
Aside from the long-awaited addition of Cadillac and the returns of Perez and Bottas, two drivers who lost their rides with Red Bull and Sauber, respectively, after the 2024 season, only two driver changes have been confirmed across the entire grid for next year.
Isack Hadjar is set to move from Racing Bulls to Red Bull, replacing Yuki Tsunoda alongside Max Verstappen, and Hadjar is set to be replaced by Arvid Lindblad, the 18-year-old who is set to be the lone rookie on the 2026 grid in his Racing Bulls seat alongside Liam Lawson.
Lawson initially started the 2025 season at Red Bull alongside Verstappen after replacing Perez, but he was replaced by Tsunoda after just two starts and sent back down to Racing Bulls, where he is set to remain after a strong year following the early-season driver switch.
Tsunoda is still set to remain with Red Bull as their test and reserve driver in 2026.