It may seem like Formula 1 teams only employ two drivers, but in reality, most teams employ several.
Some are used as strictly test and development drivers. Sebastian Buemi has been used for many years at Red Bull after his brief stint at Toro Rosso years ago, even while he’s been winning championships at WEC.
Some are simply reserves. Each team has to employ at least one reserve driver that is fully licensed in case one of their primary drivers are not available. Mick Schumacher served this role for a couple years at Mercedes before finally leaving last year.
There are development or academy drivers. These are drivers that are generally not available for an F1 seat currently, usually unless they have a year or two under their belt in Formula 2. Many teams employ drivers in F4 or in karting; for simplicity’s sake, I have only listed development drivers that will be in F2 or Formula 3 this season.
It also makes sense not to mention those below F3. Those drivers are so seperated from the F1 operation and information on them is so haphhazard (these are usually children) that I’m going to ignore them.
Finally, there are F1 Academy drivers. Every team must support at least one of the 18 entries in this all-woman championship that serves as another support series for F1 along with F2 and F3.
Technically, these drivers are around or below the skill level of the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA), which is basically the highest rung of the ladder below F3. However, I wanted to include them on here to help promote the series as I support the basic premise of it, its status as a support series to F1, and that there should be more female representation in motorsport in general.
Note: The works teams will be the first listed. This is because their reserve drivers are usually available for customer teams to use, i.e. the Ferrari reserve drivers are generally available for their customer Haas to use if they choose to.
Also note that this is a list I’ve put together to the best of my ability, putting together team announcements, social media posts, driver social media posts, team websites, and other information. Some teams probably do have drivers that are unconfirmed, i.e. I couldn’t confirm Buemi is still working with Red Bull even if he was fairly recently.
I also did not want to include certain ambassador drivers. Pedro De la Rosa may well still be involved with Aston Martin Aramco as an ambassador, as is David Coulthard with Red Bull. But obviously, they are not really being used as true drivers contributing to their teams in these roles, so they would just kind of bog the list down.
Ferrari
Car 1: Charles Leclerc (No. 16)
Car 2: Lewis Hamilton (No. 44)
The prancing horse still has Oliver Bearman under their control as he begins his F1 career at Haas.
Robert Shwartzman has left the team to race for Prema in IndyCar. He’s been replaced as primary reserve driver by Zhou Guanyu, who was let go from Sauber and would be a reliable replacement if something were to happen to Lewis Hamilton or Charles Leclerc.
WEC driver and 2023 Le Mans champion Antonio Giovinazzi is still involved with the F1 side of the team and will serve as a reserve. Arthur Leclerc, the younger brother of Charles, will be racing GT World Challenge for AF Course and may see some more FP1 sessions for Ferrari after his first at Abu Dhabi last year.
As far as the Ferrari Driver Academy goes, Dino Beganovic will be representing the team in F2, while Rafael Camara and Tuukka Taponen will race in F3.
Maya Weug will be returning to F1A as Ferrari’s official representative for the championship. Aurelia Nobels, also a Ferrari Driver Academy member, will also compete in F1A this season.
Red Bull
Due to how the following three entities are basically one in the same when it comes to drivers, all are being grouped together here.
Red Bull Racing
Car 1: Max Verstappen (No.1)
Car 2: Liam Lawson (No. 30)
Yuki Tsunoda is still listed as the reserve driver at RBR, and would likely move up to the main team in the event something were to happen to either driver.
Racing Bulls
Car 1: Isack Hadjar (No. 6)
Car 2: Yuki Tsunoda (No. 22)
Ayumu Iwasa is still linked to Red Bull through his connection with Honda. He’ll be available for Racing Bulls as a reserve when he isn’t busy in Super Formula with Team Mugen.
Red Bull Junior Team
The big driver to watch here is Arvid Lindblad. He’s moving up to F2 this season after placing fourth in F3 last season as a 16 year-old rookie, then followed that up with a championship in Formula Regional Oceania over the off-season. A good performance in F2 would put the Brit in prime contention for the next open RB seat - potentially Yuki Tsunoda’s next year.
Oliver Goethe and Pepe Marti will also be in F2 this season, while Tim Tramnitz and Nikola Tsolov return to F3. With Liam Lawson’s promotion to the main F1 team, the ladder system at Red Bull seems to be active once again.
Red Bull’s partnership with Campos Racing also extends out to F1A once again. Rafaela Ferreira will be racing for the team under Racing Bulls, Alisha Palmowski will be doing much the same under RBR, and American Chloe Chambers moves over from Haas to be affliated with Red Bull and driving a Ford sponsored effort for Campos. Note that the three women are under the “Red Bull Academy Program”; they are not Junior Team drivers nor have the same level of support as regular Junior Team drivers.
Sebastian Montoya, the son of Juan Pablo Montoya, will be racing in F2 this season. He left the Junior Team a couple of years ago, but has been sponsored by Red Bull’s Columbian branch of the company since then.
Mercedes
Car 1: George Russell (No. 63)
Car 2: Andrea Kimi Antonelli (No. 12)
With Andrea Kimi Antonelli making the jump to the team’s main seat alongside George Russell, Mercedes has added an old friend to replace his role as a reserve.
Valtteri Bottas left Sauber and is now the full time test and reserve driver for Mercedes, a team he won 10 times with in a stint as Hamilton’s sidekick from 2017 to 2021. He’ll be more than prepared to take over in the event of an injury or if the young Antonelli completely bombs in F1.
A newly signed driver to Cadillac’s IMSA program, Fredrik Vesti still has ties to Mercedes as a reserve. The 2023 F2 vice champion was passed over seemingly without much thought in favor of Antonelli, and it’s hard to imagine him being chosen now over Bottas if the team needs a reserve.
The lone Mercedes Junior Team member in F2 or F3 this season will be Noah Stromsted in his rookie season in F3.
Doriane Pin will be attempting to follow up on her runner-up effort in last year’s F1A season with her second and final year in that series, once again representing Mercedes.
Alpine
Car 1: Pierre Gasly (No. 10)
Car 2: Jack Doohan (No. 7)
Their final season as a works team, Alpine still retains a large lineup between their reserves and their academy, but have trimmed the fat just a bit to start the year.
Franco Colapinto has joined as a reserve driver in a very discussed decision. Jack Doohan is rumored to only have a contract for the first few months of the season, and the team would move to Colapinto if Doohan can’t quite perform early.
Third in F2 points last season, Paul Aron has joined Alpine as a reserve driver and will likely focus on simulator work this year.
Ryo Hirakawa comes over from McLaren to be a reserve driver when not busy with his Toyota committments in WEC and will likely appear for Alpine in FP1 at Suzuka. This is strange because Hirakawa tested for Haas at Abu Dhabi last year as that team has a new, strong relationship with Toyota.
Alpine Academy holds four drivers competing in single seaters this season. Indian Kush Maini and Itallian Gabriele Mini will be in F2 this season. Nicola Lacorte will be moving up to F3 after placing 21st in FRECA last season.
Dutch driver Nina Gademan has joined the Academy to race in F1A this season as Alpine’s representative.
McLaren (Mercedes)
Car 1: Oscar Piastri (No. 81)
Car 2: Lando Norris (No. 4)
The main character of the Arrow McLaren IndyCar program, Pato O’Ward is also signed to the F1 team as a test and reserve driver. Bottas and Vesti will likely be available in an emergency for McLaren with IndyCar’s long schedule in the first half of the season.
Will Stevens remains the team’s test and development driver, when he isn’t busy in WEC racing for Team Jota.
The McLaren Driver Development Programme has been a key aspect Zak Brown has focused on building up the last few years. Alex Dunne will be racing in F2 this season; the Irish driver is the papaya team’s lone representative in that championship this year after Gabriel Bortoleto won it for them last year and secured an F1 seat out of it.
McLaren’s F3 drivers this year are very interesting. Brando Badoer is on this team and will be there for Prema Racing, which is curious because, as his name implies, he is the son of none other than Luca Badoer. Luca Badoer tested for Ferrari for many years and had a rather infamous race for them in 2009 in relief of Felipe Massa.
Ugo Ugochukwu is moving up to F3 after his win in the Macau Grand Prix last year, with Martinius Stenshorne returning to F3.
The team’s F1A driver is Ella Lloyd. The British driver will be competing in her first season in the championship.
Aston Martin Aramco (Mercedes)
Car 1: Lance Stroll (No. 18)
Car 2: Fernando Alonso (No. 14)
2022 F2 champion Felipe Drugovich remains the team’s primary reserve driver, while racing full time in IMSA for Cadillac.
American Jak Crawford remains in F2, as he looks to improve on his fifth place effort in the series in 2024. Tina Hausmann is the lone other driver in the team’s driver development program, and she’ll be returning to F1A this season.
Stoffel Vandoorne joined the team as a test, development and reserve in 2023, and will remain with the team through 2025 when he’s not busy in WEC and Formula E.
Haas (Ferrari)
Car 1: Esteban Ocon (No. 31)
Car 2: Oliver Bearman (No. 87)
Haas’ close partnerships with Ferrari and Toyota give them access to a deep pool of potential junior drivers.
We’ve already gone through the Ferrari drivers, with Zhou likely on-call for Haas as well if they need him.
As far as Toyota goes, Ritomo Miyata will return to F2 for a second season and is likely waiting for one of these Haas seats to open to be moved up there. The 2023 Super Formula champion tested extensively for Haas in the off-season.
Pietro Fittipaldi showed up to the pre-season test with Haas and will likely stay a reserve driver here. He’ll be moving on from IndyCar last year to European Le Mans Series action with Vector Sport.
Courtney Crone will drive for the team in F1A this year.
Williams (Mercedes)
Car 1: Alexander Albon (No. 23)
Car 2: Carlos Sainz (No. 55)
Luke Browning moves up to F2 after finishing third in F3 last year. Alessandro Giusti in F3 makes up a somewhat leaner academy lineup for Williams this season after the departures of Zak O’Sullivan and Colapinto.
Oliver Turvey has joined the team from McLaren as the test and development driver.
Lia Block, the daughter of the legendary Ken Block, remains in F1A for the team.
Kick Sauber (Ferrari)
Car 1: Nico Hulkenberg (No. 27)
Car 2: Gabriel Bortoleto (No. 5)
I honestly don’t have anything for Kick Sauber, which is fair game in that Audi will be fully rebranding this team next year. However, Audi has apparently decided to fully shed the Sauber Driver Academy this off-season, which really brings up questions as far as this team’s long term efforts.
Yes, they can use the Ferrari driver pool this year again. But one of the drivers there is Zhou, who the team may pass on using again.
And next year, they can’t do that. The team will have to rely on their own pool of drivers, which they have none of right now.
Emma Felbermayr will at least be reprsenting the team in F1A this season.
Cadillac (Ferrari)
Although they have no announced drivers under contract in any single seater series just yet, there have been some interesting nuggets that have come out about this team.
They are leaning on Marcus Ericsson in developing their F1 simulator, although it is incredibly unlikely we’ll see the Swede return to an F1 seat. Drugovich (Aston Martin) and Vesti (Mercedes) are affliated with Cadillac through their endurance racing programs, so they might show up if Cadillac has a more public test.
Zhou may also get some reps here, as his manager is Cadillac F1 team principal Graeme Lowdon. Colton Herta is of course a favorite to be on this team with his close relationship with the single seater program.