22 drivers, 24 races, and all the action and drama in between condensed into just 26 letters.
With the start of a new era of regulations just a week away, we have put together a handy guide to the upcoming season using the alphabet.
Read it, save it, and share it around, hopefully it comes in handy.
There are 26 letters to get through, so we better get going….
What better place to start than in Australia. The paddock arrives in Melbourne following an intense winter testing period that required teams to put the new cars through their paces more than in recent years.
It will be the 24th time that Albert Park has hosted the season curtain raiser and will also make the 30th anniversary of the circuit’s first appearance on the F1 calendar in 1996.
There have been some unforgettable visits to Melbourne over the years, and hopefully 2026 is no different. To help drivers battle even closer on track this season, they will have a Boost Mode button at their disposal on the steering wheel.
When triggered, the system will increase the energy deployment from the Power Unit, helping a driver attack the car in front, or defend from the driver behind.
Speaking of drivers, there will be two more of them on the grid in 2026, as Cadillac take their place in the paddock for the first time. The American outfit’s line-up of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez has a combined 527 starts in the sport.
It means for the first time since the 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, there will be 22 cars lining up for the off in Australia.
The following weekend in China will see F1 ACADEMY on the support bill for the first time this campaign, and for the first time in three seasons Doriane Pin will not be on the grid.
That is because the French racer claimed the 2025 title and has now graduated our junior programme to the role of Development Driver in Brackley. In addition to that, the Pocket Rocket will get back behind the wheel of an endurance race car with Duqueine Team in the European Le Mans Series.
Back in F1, and the new regulations also mean a change for the Energy Recovery System (ERS), which in 2026 will generate twice as much energy per lap, allowing for more consistent, high-power deployment throughout a race.
Now back to F1 ACADEMY. The all-female series will once again appear on the F1 rota seven times in 2026, visiting three continents.
The series will also race at Silverstone for the first time, as our American driver, 16-year-old Payton Westcott, looks to continue her development at single-seater level.
G could only be for George Russell. Now in his fifth full season with the team, George will look to pick up from and improve on where he left off in 2025.
Two wins and nine podiums saw George compile his best-ever season points tally, and at 28-years-old with seven seasons at motorsport’s top table under his belt, he will be looking to be in the championship fight this time around.
Working with us into this new era as always is the team at Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP). The team in Brixworth designed and built our 2026 Power Units, and will also supply McLaren, Williams, and Alpine this campaign.
Melbourne will mark the 600th race since HPP first raced in F1, back at the 1994 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Sticking with a Mercedes milestone for I, we come to Innovation. In fact, this year marks 140 years of it for three-pointed star, born in 1886 when Carl Benz submitted the very first patent for the first motorised automobile.
Another anniversary up next, as we celebrate 10 years of our reformed Junior Programme in 2026, which has supported and developed many drivers through the lower formulae of motorsport in the last decade.
Our current line-up consists of nine of the brightest talents, all vying to follow in the footsteps of George and Kimi Antonelli. The 19-year-old Italian begins his second season in F1 in 2026 and will look to build on three podiums and a Sprint pole in Miami scored in 2025.
Wherever we go in the world this season, we will have Niki Lauda with us. Whether that is on the road sign leading through our factory on Lauda Drive in Brackley, the famous red cap hanging up in the garage, or the red star on the side of our race cars, every turn of the wheel we take will be done with Niki in mind.
New regulations, and a new track to get excited for, as F1 lands a new for the Spanish Grand Prix at the Madring in Madrid. The street circuit will become the 81st track to host a race in September, fittingly slotting into the calendar a week after the most-visited track in our sport’s history – Monza.
Back to the anniversaries. Can you believe it has been 10 years since Nico Rosberg clinched his world title for the Silver Arrows in Abu Dhabi? Time really does fly!
From the passing of time, to passing on track. A focal point of the new regulations will be the Overtake Mode now available to drivers, in place of the now departed Drag Reduction System (DRS).
A burst of extra electrical energy available when drivers are within a second of the car in front to deploy power to assist with an overtake.
All of this will be powered by PETRONAS, in what will be our 17th season working in collaboration with our current Title and Technical Partner.
Quebec is up next. Fans of the Canadian Grand Prix will not have as long to wait to see the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve this year.
We will be saying hello to the Canadian Provence earlier than usual this season, as the Grand Prix in Montreal moves from its traditional slot in June to May, three weeks after Miami.
The extra week will no doubt give teams and drivers a chance to Recharge, and that just happens to be the name of another new racing mode for 2026.
With Recharge Mode, drivers will be able to refill their all-important battery on braking, on throttle lift at the end of the straights or in corners where only partial power is applied.
F1’s shortened Saturday format comes next, the Sprint Race. For the fourth season in a row, there are six on the calendar this campaign. China, Miami, and for the first time Canada are up first, before the format returns to the site of its debut race in 2021 at Silverstone.
Following the summer break, Zandvoort and Singapore will host a race on Saturday for the first time, too.
Watching it all from his seat in the garage will be Toto. Our boss and Team Principal is all set for his 14th season with the three-pointed star in Brackley in 2026.
Toto and the team know how to win a championship, but that will not come easy. Understanding the new rule set will be crucial, and teams will be learning so much about the new generation of cars with every passing lap of the upcoming season.
Helping us with that learning will be our Third Driver, Fred Vesti. The Dane moves up from the position of Development Driver this year and will once again provide his expertise to help drive us forward and maximise performance.
Performance, which we will look to implement into W17. Our 2026 challenger completed 1,216 laps across Barcelona Shakedown and Bahrain testing. Now it is time for the racing to begin.
X is for AleX Albon (see what we did there). Also known as ‘Albono,’ George’s good friend and fellow racer is gearing up for his seventh season in 2026.
It is a season that will end – as it so often does – at Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi. The venue in the UAE has seen the world champion crowned five times, including last season. Will this season go down to the wire too?
We end, of course, with Zandvoort, home of the Dutch Grand Prix. The circuit by the shore will once again welcome the teams and drivers back to the paddock after the summer break in August, and host a Sprint race for the first time, too.