2026 Formula One season

The  was the 15th Formula One championship. It was contested over 16 countries in accordance with cycle three of the Grand Prix calendar cycle. As a result of both over a quarter of the grid withdrawing due to financial reasons and an increase in retirements, the points system changed from 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 (top ten) to 10-6-4-3-2-1 (top six). The Martinson–Sauber–Toyota trio won the championship for the third time in a row.

Team changes

 * Caterham withdraws.
 * Renault withdraws.
 * Cloud withdraws.

Driver changes
Brit two-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton retired from the Williams outfit. Despite his fairly average result of late, he claimed he feared he was growing too old for the sport. Three-time world champion Marcus Ericsson took his seat, and hoped to be fighting for the title. Anicom Toyota Formula's team leadership were happy to let him go, claiming they had done it before to allow him an better chance of world titles, despite him outperforming his team mate significantly this season. Young charger Darnell Salvage replaced Ericsson at Toyota, while Minardi allowed Gorou Kurosawa to take his seat for the first half of the season, and former Minardi driver (who failed to progress to a larger team) Anselmo Rosario for the second half, giving the two drivers a possibly-final chance to prove themselves to bigger teams, while providing Minardi with some rare experience.

Ma Quinghua, also a two-time world champion, made an announcement of his retirement during the previous season. Experienced frenchman Guatier Faure was signed up to replace him, leaving his EADS seat vacant to many drivers of now-defunct teams. Bernard Babineaux – former EADS driver himself – however, stepped up to fill the seat.

As a result of the three defunct teams, five drivers (Timo Hutmacher, Raja Harta, Hugo Brauer, Mstislav Ajam and Giacomo Costatini) had no seat at all for the 2026 season. Some drivers, including Jarod Wells, Wim Seghers and Cyrille Paquet, managed to find test driver seats.

Results and standings

 * See also: Results sheet