With all ten teams having confirmed their line-ups, let’s take a closer look at the line-ups and learn a little bit more about the drivers.
Two-time—and reigning—World Champion Max Verstappen has been with Red Bull since 2016. In March 2022, he signed a new contract extension which will see him continue on with the Austrian Formula One team till the end of the 2028 season.
Ever since joining Red Bull in 2016, Verstappen has been a trailblazer. The Dutchman won on his Red Bull debut in Spain, becoming Formula One’s youngest winner. He took home his first world title in 2021 after being involved in an epic title fight with Lewis Hamilton. His second title win came the following season in 2022, when Verstappen cleaned up the entire grid and won comfortably with four races to go.
As Red Bull’s undisputed numero uno, Verstappen’s legacy has already been written with Red Bull.
Pérez, who joined Red Bull in 2021 and replaced Alex Albon, currently has a contract with Red Bull until the end of the 2024 season.
The Mexican had initially come to Red Bull on a multi-year deal and signed an extension in June 2022. Pérez has been instrumental in Red Bull returning to the front of the grid, playing the perfect second-fiddle to Max Verstappen. Pérez has played a crucial role in helping the team win their first Constructors’ Championship title since 2013.
The Scuderia’s scarlet boy is the undisputed No. 1 at Formula One’s most iconic team. Leclerc, who joined the team in 2019 and replaced Kimi Räikkönen, signed a new contract in 2020 which will keep him with the Scuderia till the end of the 2024 season.
Ferrari are known for their reluctance towards handing out long contracts, but the fact that the Italian team have put that much faith in Leclerc shows his calibre. The five-time Grand Prix winner certainly has all the qualities of being a future World Champion, which was certain when he beat his veteran teammate and four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel in his first season with the team. After starting the 2022 season strongly, where he looked like a serious title contender, Leclerc was let down by his team and will hope to be back in the title fight in 2023.
Spanish driver Carlos Sainz will be spending his third season with Ferrari in 2023 after joining the Italian team in 2021, replacing four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel. A Red Bull academy driver, Sainz made his debut with Toro Rosso in 2015 alongside Max Verstappen. He moved to Renault in 2017 and then McLaren in 2019. After two impressive seasons with McLaren, Sainz was roped in by Ferrari in 2021, and after a tough first season with the Scuderia, he took his first pole position and victory in 2022 at the British Grand Prix.
Sainz is currently signed with the team until the end of the 2024 season and will be partnering Charles Leclerc as the Maranello-based team hope to take home their first Constructors’ title since 2008.
Ever since he made his debut with Williams in 2019, George Russell has been one of the most promising drivers on the grid. After three seasons with Williams, who were right at the back of the field, with Russell continuously outperforming the car, the young Brit finally moved to Mercedes in 2022, replacing Valtteri Bottas.
Russell immediately showed the world why he has been rated so highly as he got the better of his veteran teammate and seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton in his very first season with the Silver Arrows. As the Brackley-based team’s future No. 1, Russell will be hoping to take Mercedes back to the top of the field. He currently has a long-term contract with Mercedes.
Seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton joined Mercedes in 2013 after a six-year stint with McLaren from 2007 to 2012.
Ever since joining Mercedes, both the team and Hamilton personally have seen a spectacular upward rise in their respective careers, with Hamilton winning an incredible six Drivers’ titles with the team in ten years.
After a tough season in 2022 with the new regulations, Hamilton will be looking to return to fighting for wins and championships in 2023. His current contract with Mercedes is till the end of the 2023 season, and both him and his team have expressed that they would like to further extend their partnership.
Tsunoda, who joined AlphaTauri in 2021 and replaced Daniil Kyvat, signed a contract extension with the Faenza-based team in September 2022.
Tsunoda will drive for the team in 2023 and will be their senior driver, with Pierre Gasly having left the team at the end of the 2022 season.
The 2020 Formula 2 champion and 2021 Formula E champion signed for AlphaTauri during the Japanese Grand Prix 2022 weekend, after Alpine announced that Pierre Gasly would be joining the French team.
Replacing Gasly at AlphaTauri, what made the Italian team sign De Vries was his stellar Formula One debut at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix, where he scored points for the not-so-strong Williams team.
Two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso will be joining Aston Martin in 2023 to replace Sebastian Vettel, who retired at the end of the 2022 season, on a multi-year contract.
Alonso, who started his career with Minardi in 2001, moved to Renault in 2003 and won back-to-back Championships in 2005 and 2006, taking down Michael Schumacher. He moved to McLaren for one eventful season in 2007 and returned to Renault for another two seasons. The Spaniard then moved to Ferrari in search of a third title, but between 2010 and 2014, he and Ferrari remained unsuccessful. He then moved to McLaren for three forgettable seasons before leaving the sport in 2018.
Alonso returned to the sport in 2021 with Renault again, now in their Alpine branding, and after two seasons with Alpine, in his 20th season in the sport, Alonso will be moving to Aston Martin for one last hurrah.
Stroll, who is the son of Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll, will be spending his third season with Aston Martin in 2023. He has been with the outfit since their Racing Point days, and this will be his fifth season with them.
Ever since making his debut with Williams in 2017, Stroll has been a consistent midfield driver. With Aston Martin looking to move up the field, He will be one of the interesting ones to watch out for next season.
Mercedes academy driver Esteban Ocon started his Formula One career with the now-defunct team Manor in 2016. While the Frenchman did not score any points with Manor, his was signed by Force India in 2017. After two years with the team, where he helped them become a solid midfield force, Ocon sat out 2019 and returned to the grid in 2020 with French team Renault.
Since then, Ocon has been Renault’s poster-boy, taking his first career victory in 2021 at the Hungarian Grand Prix with the same team, albeit under a new name: Alpine.
Ocon currently has a long-time deal with Alpine, which will see him stay with the French team until the end of the 2024 season.
Gasly was announced as Fernando Alonso’s replacement and Esteban Ocon’s teammate for the 2023 season and beyond during the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix weekend.
Gasly initially was already contracted with AlphaTauri for the 2023 season, but following Sebastian Vettel’s decision to retire, Alonso’s move to Aston Martin, and the Oscar Piastri drama, the entire grid was shaken up. With no driver confirmed to partner Ocon, Alpine decided to bring in Gasly. With a move back to Red Bull sealed off, Gasly was looking for a move to a team higher up the grid, and with Alpine’s upward trajectory in the last few seasons, the move was inevitable.
The all-French pairing of Gasly and Ocon for the French team is also Formula One’s first-ever all-French driver line-up since 1994.
Norris, who joined McLaren in 2019 after replacing Fernando Alonso, has quickly become the team’s main driver in a short span of time. One of the younger drivers on the grid, Norris is also one of the most talented drivers, touted by many as a future World Champion.
With McLaren’s rise from right at the bottom of the grid in 2017/18 to becoming the best of the rest by 2020/21, Norris has enjoyed a relatively successful stint with the Woking-based team. The young Brit has taken multiple podiums for his team and will look to begin fighting for wins as McLaren hope to keep moving further up the grid. Norris is currently contracted with McLaren till the end of the 2025 season.
Involved in one of the most messiest contract agreements in recent history, Australian Formula 2 Champion Oscar Piastri will be joining McLaren from the 2023 season onwards to partner with Lando Norris as part of a multi-year agreement.
Piastri, a Renault academy driver, was expected to drive for the French team in the near future, but during the summer break of 2022, when Fernando Alonso left Alpine for Aston Martin, Alpine announced Piastri as his replacement. Hours later, however, Piastri denied the claims, stating he hadn’t signed any deal with the team, and thus began one of the most messiest contract discussions.
Ultimately, after intervention from the Contract Recognition Board (CRB), Piastri was cleared from the Alpine drama, and McLaren announced that the young Australian would be replacing his compatriot Daniel Ricciardo on a multi-year contract.
Magnussen, who made his debut in Formula One with McLaren in 2014, has had a roller-coaster of a career. After taking a podium in his debut race, he spent a rough few years with Renault and Haas before leaving the sport at the end of the 2020 season.
The Dane was roped back in by Haas for the 2022 season after the American team dismissed Nikita Mazepin. Magnussen re-joined the team on a multi-year contract in 2022 and is their No. 1 driver, with the team banking on him to take them back into the midfield fight.
Former Williams, Renault and Force India driver Nico Hülkenberg will be replacing Mick Schumacher for the final seat in the Haas team in 2023. Hülkenberg was announced as Schumacher’s replacement ahead of the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on a one-year deal.
Hülkenberg, who is a former GP2 Champion, made his Formula One debut with Williams in 2010. He then moved to Force India in 2011, and that is when the world took notice of him. Hülkenberg, since then, has driven for a host of midfield teams, proving himself to be a dependable midfield driver.
A veteran of 181 races, Hülkenberg also holds the dubious record of having the most starts in Formula One without a podium. While he hasn’t been a full-time driver since 2019, when he partnered Daniel Ricciardo at Renault, he has made four appearances across the 2020 and 2022 seasons for Racing Point and Aston Martin (Racing Point were rebranded as Aston Martin) as a substitute.
Hülkenberg served as a Reserve driver for Aston Martin in 2022 apart from his two appearances. Now back on the grid, he will be looking to make his second stint in Formula One a more successful one.
After an extremely successful five-year stint with Mercedes from 2017 to 2021, where he helped the team win five Constructors’ titles, Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas joined Alfa Romeo in 2022 on a three-year deal.
A proven race-winner and one of the more experienced drivers on the grid, Bottas is Alfa Romeo’s team leader as the Swiss team look to head up the grid to fight against the likes of McLaren and Alpine.
China’s first-ever full-time Formula One driver Zhou Guanyu joined Alfa Romeo in 2022, replacing Antonio Giovinazzi.
After an impressive debut season, where he scored in his debut race, Guanyu was handed a contract extension in September 2022 for the 2023 season.
Former Red Bull academy driver Alex Albon made his Formula One debut in 2018 with Toro Rosso. Albon’s impressive performance for the sister Red Bull team saw him get promoted to the senior team in the middle of the 2019 season to replace Pierre Gasly.
Albon spent one-and-a-half seasons with Red Bull before the team released him from his role. After spending the 2021 season away from the grid, Albon joined Williams in 2022. In August 2022, Williams announced that he would be staying with them in 2023 and beyond after signing a multi-year deal.
American driver Logan Sargeant will be replacing Nicholas Latifi at Williams in 2023. Sargeant, who finished third in the Formula 3 championship with Prema in 2019 and third in the Formula 2 championship with Carlin in 2022, will be partnering Alex Albon.
Sargeant joined the Williams Driver Academy in October 2021 and made his FP debut in 2022 at the United States Grand Prix.
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