Formula One With 11 Teams On The Grid For The First Time In A Decade
With the 2026 season starting in March, we now have 11 teams on the Formula One grid for the first time in a decade.
We last had 11 teams in 2016: the Haas F1 team made their debut into Formula One. However the number dropped back down to ten in the following 2017 season.
With the neon green and black Sauber now known as Audi, the German car manufacturer. Audi has participated in many motorsports, and are well known champions in most motorsports they have competed in, such as rallying, GT3 Racing and Le Mans 24 hour endurance racing.
Audi have retained the same drivers as Sauber had last season with the pairing of Gabriel Bortoletto and Nico Hulkenburg.
The new kid on the block is Cadillac, now becomes the second American F1 team on the grid for the first time in decades, with Haas being the one before it. Cadillac has shown motorsport success mostly in indycar racing and Nascar, being engine suppliers. The Cadillac team has turned heads with its half and half livery, being black silver and white. Which can be reminiscent to those older Formula one fans who remember the BAR livery in 1999.
History in motion. Our 2026 livery. pic.twitter.com/WbaoEpOoDA
— Cadillac Formula 1 Team (@Cadillac_F1) February 9, 2026
Cadillac have picked up two veterans for their debut season, with Valtteri Bottas and Sergio ‘Checo’ Perez. These drivers have 26 full seasons between them in Formula One, which will help the unexperienced team overcome challenges easier, and help the team shift forward up the grid quicker.
Audi has developed their own engine for this season, which has proved to be a difficult challenge for manufacturer brands in Formula one, with Alpine dropping their Renault engine for the highly reliable Mercedes engine in 2026.
The R26 is Audi’s challenger, which will be the latest team since Renault to manufacture their own engine. The German team has some other F1 known names in the team, with Jonathan Wheatley (as Team Principal), Mattia Binotto (as Project Head) and James Key ( as Technical Director).
Howdy, Audi 👋#F1 pic.twitter.com/AtOy18IdT1
— Formula 1 (@F1) January 20, 2026
Cadillac has a prancing horse in the back of it, to avoid the project of creating their own engine, like they have in motorsports, which seemed to be a roll of the dice before practice in Barcelona and Bahrain, however its looks like they have landed a six with the Ferrari engine supposedly to be the best in terms of performance going forward into the season.
It all comes down to Melbourne.
