Every F1 driver out of contract at the end of 2025

Six drivers started the 2025 Formula 1 season knowing that they would be out of contract at the end of the year. Now, six races in, each is still waiting for confirmation on 2026 although some will be more confident than others.

Mercedes‘ Kimi Antonelli and Isack Hadjar at Racing Bulls have made strong starts to the year, but others still have more to prove. Liam Lawson earned his place on the 2025 grid off the back of some eye-catching reserve drives, but he has yet to show the same spark this year, having been demoted from Red Bull after just two races to sister outfit Racing Bulls.

At least he’s still on the grid, which is more than can be said for Jack Doohan, who raced in six grands prix this year for Alpine before being replaced by Franco Colapinto. Neither driver has any security for 2026: Colapinto’s current agreement is for just five races.

Elsewhere, George Russell is the most high-profile out-of-contract driver. He has been linked to Red Bull, but looks most likely to extend his stay at Mercedes. Yuki Tsunoda‘s deal ends at the end of 2025 but his prospects of an extension look better than they did at the start of the year, since replacing Lawson at Red Bull.

He also has the option of testing the market. This year offers a rare opportunity for anyone looking to move with the arrival of Cadillac onto the grid in 2026. The team is in need of two drivers for its debut season and has been strongly linked to Sergio Perez.

The opportunity is there for F1’s annual silly season to get into full swing, but don’t expect the speculation to be confined to the drivers coming to the end of their current deals. As Perez saw last year, the mere existence of a contract doesn’t necessarily offer job security. And with rumours of Max Verstappen eyeing a move, managers and lawyers could find their hands full as the season goes on.

F1 drivers out of contract at the end of 2025

George Russell

On August 31, 2023, George Russell penned a new two-year deal with Mercedes that ensured he would remain with the Brackley outfit until at least 2025. In the two years since, he has proven to be one of the F1 grid’s quickest and most consistent drivers, alongside Lewis Hamilton no less, and has led the team’s charge in 2025.

Although Russell’s current deal is set to expire this season, team boss Toto Wolff has already made clear that the Briton has various “options” to extend. Russell has made no secret of his desire to remain with Mercedes and expressed his confidence in the team’s ability to get back to the front of the grid from 2026, when new power units, with greater electrical energy recovery and deployment, will be introduced.

“I think you know the experience the team have had, the success in 2014 with the new powertrain, and then obviously the time in Formula E, the work that was done with the [Mercedes-AMG One] Hypercar,” said Russell at the 2024 Monaco GP. “There are a lot of individuals within HPP [Mercedes High Performance Powertrains] who have got so much experience with this future technology.

“I think that leaves us in a really great place to have a great engine. And the work [Mercedes fuel and lubricant partner] Petronas are doing on the fuel as well is looking really strong. So, on the engine side, I think we’re feeling very confident for that era.”

A move elsewhere appears unlikely for now but, Russell has been cited as a potential target for Red Bull. Christian Horner stated that his team would be “foolish” not to consider him — despite his various clashes with Max Verstappen.

Kimi Antonelli

Kimi Antonelli joined the F1 grid with Mercedes in 2025 on a one-year deal and it has already been confirmed that the Italian has “options” in his contract that should ensure that he stays with the team for 2026 and possibly beyond.

Before the start of the season, Mercedes made clear that 2025 will be a “transitional year” for Antonelli, with the aim of preparing him for a more competitive campaign in 2026, but the teenager hasn’t needed to fall back on any excuses with a series of impressive drives in his first races of the year.

He’s scored points in all but one race and started on pole for the Miami sprint. A third-place grid sport for the Miami Grand Prix promised the chance of a podium, but Antonelli lost out in a safety car period to take his fourth sixth-place finish of the year.

It’s difficult to envisage any outcome other than Antonelli remaining where he is in 2026.

Liam Lawson

Liam Lawson’s 2023 performances as a reserve for injured AlphaTauri driver Daniel Ricciardo were so assured that it seemed criminal to leave him back on the sidelines last season.

He wasn’t there for long, as Ricciardo struggled and Lawson took his seat for the final six races of the year. Once again, his pace was close enough to established team-mate Yuki Tsunoda that the senior figures at sister team Red Bull sat up and took notice.

In a bold move, Red Bull brought him in to replace Sergio Perez for 2025, alongside Max Verstappen who has made a habit of destroying those sat in the adjoining garage. He did it again in record time.

In a car that even Verstappen finds difficult to tame, Lawson floundered, qualifying dead last for the Chinese sprint race and Grand Prix. After two race weekends, he was sent back to the team now known as Racing Bulls, and replaced by Tsunoda.

The initial messaging was supportive, with team boss Christian Horner admitting that Red Bull had asked too much too soon of the 23-year-old, and that he needed more time to gain experience in a less high-profile race seat.

Since then, however, Lawson has failed to rediscover the form of previous seasons, qualifying and finishing behind Isack Hadjar in every race that they have been team-mates. With the highly-rated Red Bull junior driver Arvid Lindblad already making his mark in Formula 2, and Ayumu Iwasa, currently racing in Japanese Super Formula, also an option for Red Bull, Lawson will know that he needs to up his game to secure a new deal.

Isack Hadjar 

Isack Hadjar was the latest Red Bull junior to receive an F1 promotion at the start of the season, benefitting from Liam Lawson’s temporary move from Racing Bulls.

The Frenchman has been signed to a one-year deal after impressing in F2 last season — winning four feature races, securing three further podiums and finishing second in the drivers’ standings. He also showed strong pace during a post-season F1 test in Abu Dhabi.

“His journey to Formula 1 has been nothing short of outstanding. He has shown remarkable growth, with a series of impressive results in the junior single-seater ranks,” said team boss Laurent Mekies.

“He has the talent and drive necessary to compete at the highest level, and we have every confidence that he will adapt quickly and make a significant impact.”

Hadjar has only burnished his reputation so far, save for an unfortunate error in the wet on the Australian Grand Prix formation lap that saw him crash out before starting his debut F1 race.

In the second round, he qualified ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, and has been ahead of Lawson since his return to the team. Right now, he looks to be doing what he needs to in order to extend his stint in F1.

Yuki Tsunoda

Yuki Tsunoda signed a one-year extension with Racing Bulls mid-way through 2024, but got more than he expected from the agreement, when he was promoted to Red Bull two races into the season.

He had insisted that he was ready for the move, and was clearly disappointed to have been overlooked in favour of Liam Lawson. Since joining the senior team, he has looked more at home than the unfortunate Lawson.

It’s all relative though, and Tsunoda remains adrift of his illustrious team-mate — on average more than half a second slower than Max Verstappen in qualifying.

As the latest in a series of team-mates to struggle against the four-time world champion, the gap won’t come as a great surprise: Tsunoda’s task is to close it, while also helping to develop the car into one that’s more raceable and less sensitive.

If he can show progress, then there’s a strong chance that Red Bull will opt for stability in 2026 with an all-new car that’s likely to need plenty more development work.

Jack Doohan

After years on the sidelines at Alpine, Jack Doohan finally got his big F1 break in 2024, as he was announced as Esteban Ocon‘s full-time replacement at the Enstone outfit for 2025 in a one-year deal.

But almost immediately, his role came under threat when Alpine singed Franco Colapinto as a reserve driver, following a stint at Williams in 2024 that marked him out as a future star.

It was clear that Flavio Briatore — then an advisor and now team principal — had greater things in mind for Colapinto, and so it has proved with Doohan dropped from Alpine, from the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix onwards, following a torrid first six races — marked by as much bad luck as errors — in which he failed to score a point.

That’s not the end of the story for Doohan: the driver switch is only confirmed for five races, at which point Briatore says he’ll re-assess the situation with a view to selecting the strongest driver line-up in time for 2026. Right now, however, the future is not looking bright for the Australian.

Franco Colapinto

Logan Sargeant’s mid-season replacement at Williams initially faced accusations of being a mediocre pay driver last year, but that talk quickly stopped when he started putting in a series of scintillating performances.

The first Argentine driver in F1 for 23 years qualified 18th in his debut grand prix and drive to a 12th-place finish, only 13sec behind team-mate Albon who had started (and finished) in ninth.

In his next race, he qualified ahead of Albon, who’d had his own problems, and then finished eighth, just behind his team-mate in the following day’s race, collecting his first championship points.

It wasn’t long before Red Bull and Sauber were making inquiries, given the lack of an available race seat at Williams. Instead, Colapinto signed with Alpine in a reserve role, which was always expected to include a bigger role.

Now, having been announced as Jack Doohan’s replacement for five races, the Alpine seat looks like Colapinto’s to lose. If he can repeat that early form of last year, then it;s difficult to see him being losing the seat either this year or next. Let’s not forget, however, that his later form in 2024 was a little patchier.