2030 Formula One season

The  will be the 19th Formula One championship. It will be contested over 18 Grands Prix in as many countries.

Calendar
The 2030 season will feature a large calendar reshuffle, and signals the possible end to the Grand Prix Calendar Cycle introduced in 2018. The overarching theme of the changes is to make the true jewel European rounds the final rounds of the championship, and to gradually increase the amount of Grands Prix contested over the season, up from 16 to 18. Nevertheless all of the rounds from cycle one of the Grand Prix calendar, last modified in 2025, are present.

The season will open with three rounds in the Americas followed by China and Singapore, as per the calendar cycle. It will then feature an Australian round – the supposed new spot for the Australian Grand Prix on the calendar – then Abu Dhabi.

The first half of the European leg begins next. Hungary, Austria and France are expected to become yearly-recurring Grands Prix instead of once every three years, Spain and Germany are in accordance with the calendar cycle, and Sweden may be a one-off.

Japan was given a place relatively late in the season for a non-European round not only because it has historically been a title-deciding track, but also because a place in the early season would reduce ticket sales as it is also the second-last round of 2029. Finally, the four jewel European tracks of Monaco, Silverstone, Spa and Monza will conclude the season.

It is not known whether European rounds will continue to be the closing rounds of the season.

Private tests
As with previous seasons, the FIA allowed each team 4 days of private testing, in addition to the mandated 8 days of pre-season and 2 day mid-season tests. As a precaution, the FIA banned any tests on circuits up to 2 weeks before a Grand Prix being held there. As with previous years, in order to save costs, teams often partnered to share testing days at a circuit. Engine manufacturers had a large say in where and when to test, and who with.

Of note, Williams had the most diverse test calendar, testing at 5 circuits, Santander had the least diverse, using all its test days after the mid-season test at Abu Dhabi, and Ford had the latest test near the end of the season to help with the Virgin takeover next season.

Regulation changes
Regulation changes this season are aimed at increasing reliability, increasing the car's dependence on its engine without an unreasonable increase in speeds, and accounting for the new teams.

The first change is in the points system. While previously the top seven finishers were awarded 10-7-5-4-3-2-1, the top eight will now be given 15-10-7-5-4-3-2-1. This accounts for more teams in the field and also gives a bigger bonus to podium finishers: the difference 4th-3rd, 3rd-2nd and 2nd-1st was 1-2-3 and is now 2-3-5.

The second change is technical in nature. Suspension, gearbox and electronics regulations have been simplified, with the intention of resulting in less complex systems, meaning less tendency to fail while still allowing new innovations. Additionally, engine regulations have been loosened overall to make the engine a bigger part of a car's overall speed.

Also for this year, as a one off, new teams will be entered in to a Aeschelman Cup (named after the late Dieter Aeschelman who lost his life in the 2017 Formula One season). In this cup, new teams will be scored using the regular points system but disregarding the resutls of existing teams. A fairly equally distributed prize is given for this cup, which is controversial amongst existing teams (particularly Ford and Minardi), but the prize money has been set in stone nonetheless.

Signed team and drivers
In another change for this season, the procedure for assigning driver numbers has changed. Teams who started the first round of the first season using the Engines' Championship winner's engine will be given the next numbers down, in order of their Constructors' Championship positions.
 * Sauber: Kesley Martinson and Tiger Abraham will, as predicted, continue the second half of their two-year contracts. Sauber are interested in cheaper drivers such as Badr Hussain but will not cancel an ongoing contract over it. They may look to replace Martinson, who is paid higher than Abraham, next season. They replaced Renault Sport Academy driver Marcelino Cardozo with Gorou Kurosawa as their first test driver for 2 years, and signed Hong Hou for another year.
 * Ferrari: Jean-Eric Vergne and Kulmala are set to do another year as well. Kulmala wanted out of Ferrari as he's tired of their reliability and doesn't believe they're capable of winning, but there were no other options. For their test driver and North McLaren situation, they switched things up: Following an ok-on-pace but frustratingly-unreliable season with North, Dudley was switched to primary Ferrari test driver and out of his full North seat in to their secondary test driver. Tor Horn, last year's Ferrari test driver, was placed in North for the year and given the secondary Ferrari test driver seat.
 * Toyota: Toyota were interested in keeping Badr Hussain and signing up Godfrey Bush, their reserve from last season who drove to a stellar podium on his debut and continued to perform competitively. Both drivers, being happy with the team, were signed for two year contracts, difficult to get out of. Toyota's struggle to find talent from within lead them to assign Tore Notaro as their reserve driver too for the year.
 * Williams: Williams were happy with Wakahisa, who would've liked to move to Ferrari or Sauber for this season but on the back of BMW's announcement, beleived Williams can ascend so signed a 3-year deal with a lenient between-season exit clause in exchange for less pay. Williams were not so happy with Savlage's slower pace for his experience, so signed up impressive Santander rookie Yasu Himura for two years (with a team option to expire the contract after the first year if there are performance issues). Williams took a small payment from Dawood Amjad for the reserve driver seat for the year.
 * Santander: Toyota, who dictate both seats, were very happy with Himura and even Kurosawa, less so with Notaro, who hadn't outqualified either of his team mates. They were willing to give Notaro another year to develop as long as no no spectacular younglings became available, which didn't happen, so they did. Yasu and Gorou were snatched by Williams and Sauber, so Toyota pulled another alternate-series competitor in Isidor Hofmeister.
 * Ford: Ford and Huddleson are happy with each other, the American having outqualified his teammate 9-1. He was signed on for another year. Dimitriou will have been in F1 for three years and at Ford for two as of the start of this season, but does not look to be performing on the second and final year of his contract. Ford replaced him with experience in the form of Abner Ashley for two years, but were also looking in to Royal Beck.
 * South McLaren: South were happy with both drivers. Bachchan was underperforming compared to what was expected, but still marginally outperformde his teammate. Both were keeping an eye out for bigger things though, particularly Bachchan, though his YDDP contract is costly to get out of. Eventually the team announced status quo for another year, including their WEC test driver. They also hried Dawood Amjad to do some testing, in return for a small sum from the Moroccan.
 * North McLaren: North McLaren are happy with Faure's development capabilities, which is their main concern. It is a bonus that he tends to outperform his Ferrari-placed driver. Ferrari switched things up by putting Tor Horn in the driver seat and Cordell Dudley as reserve.
 * Minardi: Octavio Paredes was placed by McLaren in their Minardi seat, as per their usually three-year cycle of drivers in Minardi. Minardi were looking to replace Aaldenberg, who also had 3 years, with a pay driver to bring funds to the team, so hired the anonymous Fabio Araya from Spain. To fill the gap until McLaren place their next test driver next season, Minardi got pay driver Mauricio Kaiden Yamazaki Divinagracia – the first Filipino – on for a season as reserve.
 * Grosjean: Grosjean had significant backing from Renault so could afford to run without pay drivers. They were looking for two fairly experienced drivers, and found them in the convinently-Frenchmen of Philbert Rome and Darnell Salvage. Two-year contracts with between-season exit options for all parties (driver and team). They also took on Renault Sport Academy driver Rochus Lichtenberg as reserve for a year.
 * Russian Time: Russian Time were looking for an established cheap but good rookie and an experienced head. They got the former in the form of Kyle Harland, a driver promoted by the Racing Steps Foundation who paid some quite raw dolla to get him in the seat. They also hired ex-Minardi driver Anselmo Rosario for a year. Honda offered a small discount on their engine to place their newly-recognized yougn talent Aoi Ueno from Japan in the reserve seat. Russian Time was more than happy to accept.
 * Janz: Janz were looking for a cheap driver and a pay driver. They signed a 1-year engine deal with Honda for cheaps, in exchange Honda would be allowed to dictate a seat. They filled it with Backed By Honda driver Masaru Fakui, though the engine supplier can switch out the driver at any time. Janz still wanted a pay driver so secured the services of Royal Beck, though the team was the American's last choice as he doubts their prospects. Their more lax stance on title sponsors allowed one of Royal Beck's sponsors, Foot Locker, a relatively cheap place in the team's name. Janz were still hungry for more, so got some funds in the form of Sotiris Dimitriou.

Team changes
The FIA announced it would open applications for new teams. It targets 3 additional teams, but is willing to accept 4 if it sees enough suitable applications. It also clarified there is no obligation to introduce any teams.

Teams that expressed an interest:
 * 🇲🇾 Malaysia Genting F1 Team – under the management of the Genting Group, which is a Malaysian tourism/resort conglomerate.
 * 🇫🇷 France Grosjean Motorsport – a team that will be headed by former Grand Prix winner Romain Grosjean, and backed by Renault.
 * 🇩🇪 Germany Janz-Cline – a fast up-and-coming privateering team.
 * the United States MCM Group – a very successful sports event organiser.
 * the United States Nvidia – who have sponsored Sauber and Martinson since 2024.
 * 🇦🇹 Austria Red Bull Racing – to make a potential comeback.
 * the United Kingdom River Island – a British clothing company attempting to replicate Benetton's success.
 * 🇷🇺 Russia Russian Time – runs a GP2 outfit.
 * the United Kingdom Virgin Racing – backed by the Virgin Group.

The FIA accepted Janz-Cline (now just Janz), Russian Time and Grosjean Motorosport's applications for new teams, stating it wanted to encourage privateers. It offered extensive financial advice and monitoring to ensure they didn't suffer the same fate as previous privateers.

The three engine options for Janz and Russian Time were largely considered to be Ford, Honda and Renault. Ferrari was too unreliable and expensive, Toyota was not interested in supplying more engines so priced highly, and BMW was a one-team engine. Ford and Renault both watned a B-team for extra development, however Ford was tended to price higher (especially considering they were slower) as their funds were restricted by owning a team unlike Renault. Honda were considered nothing special except for rock-hard reliability, and priced high initially highly.

In addition, several team deals were up for renewal this season: ATR's title sponsorship of Ferrari, Anicom's with Toyota, Honda's with South McLaren, as well as Toyota's partnership with Santander, and BMW's with Williams. Early in the 2029 season, ATR–Ferrari and BMW–Williams and Sauber–Renault all elected to continue their partnerships, BMW committing for a generous 5 years, ATR for 3, and Renault for 3. Speculation was rife about BMW's interest in potentially founding a team, but BMW continued to argue that it has the best chance of winning with Williams, just as it argued the same in the lead up to the 2028 season.

Honda eventually sold a large portion of their shares in South McLaren due to poor team performance, and went on to price their engines more competitively, which easily won over Russian Time and Janz. They will continue to use South McLaren as their factory development team, but are looking to partner with more competitive constructors in the future. This ended Honda's 14-year title sponsorship of (South) McLaren, the longest in the sport up to this point.

Anicom also ended its 8-year title sponsorship with Toyota, citing a less favorable financial situation in the wake of Sauber–Coba/Renault and Ferrari's domination of the sport over the past few years.

Young driver programmes
In addition to these, the young driver programmes try to sift out up and coming drivers from lower formulae:
 * * Inclusive of the seasons mentioned. A plus indicates a rolling contract that can be expired at intervals by either party.
 * ** Where placed means assigned a seat by the YDP.

Raleigh Huddleson and Hong Hou were released from their Renault Sport Academy contract before the start of the season, the former being a well-established driver now, and Yasu Himura was bought out of his Toyota contract by Williams. Ferrari let go of Claudio Abascal and Marinho Silva before the season started too, as did Toyota with Yaromir Konstantinov, all being in their respective programmes since 2028.

Report
During and following the preseason test, despite the regulation change, the front four appear to have maintained their segmented lead over the rest of the field. The Sauber and Toyota looked to have a slight edge over Ferrari and Williams, although some analyses showed the Williams to be best through the corners. Grosjean looked the slowest of the lot surprisingly, with

And so for the fifth season in a row, Ferrari win somehow.

Results and standings

 * See also: Results sheet