The 2026 Formula 1 season has reached its midway point.
One driver has been dominating this year, and his name is not Max Verstappen or Lewis Hamilton. The two drivers, who have 11 championships between them, have had their shining moments so far, but 19-year-old Kimi Antonelli has stolen the show.
This year, Cadillac F1 joined the grid. The team made a big splash branding themselves as “America’s Team.” Cadillac isn’t the only outfit based in the United States. Haas, which launched in 2016, is based in Kannapolis, North Carolina, but the General Motors-backed outfit has been pedal to the metal in attempting to connect with the United States audience.
Here in the U.S., the Las Vegas Grand Prix and United States Grand Prix in Austin are still to come.
The FIA canceled the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia Grand Prix competitions, which were set to be raced in April, due to the violent conflict in Iran.
A major storyline heading into the 2026 season was extensive new technical regulations for the first time since 2022. Hamilton said the updates “will be the most challenging it’s ever been in the sport” and other drivers were not happy one race in with Charles Leclerc commenting that the new hybrid car felt like “Mario Kart.” Red Bull Racing was the quickest to figure out those previous regulations. Verstappen had a historic 2023 campaign with 10 straight wins as he captured the Drivers’ Championship and the team won the Constructors’ Championship taking the trophy in every race but one that year.
Who is at the top of their class so far this season? And who has been struggling?
Here are grades for every F1 team heading into the 2026 summer break, ranked from worst to best:
Aston Martin: F
Unlike other low-performing teams, there are few excuses for Aston Martin. They have been on the grid for several years now and have two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso. Granted, the Spaniard is getting toward the twilight of his career, but the team is giving him far less than a hero’s farewell tour. In what was most likely his final home race at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, Alonso qualified dead last and then, after starting from the pit lane due to parts replacements, he had to retire from the race early. And Lance Stroll, the son of team owner Lawrence Stroll, once again has done absolutely nothing.
Points: 1 (Fernando Alonso 1, Lance Stroll 0)
Williams: D
Williams seemed to be on the up-and-up, finishing fifth in the Constructors’ Championship last season with 137 points. Carlos Sainz had two podium finishes in his first year with the English outfit and captured hearts by embracing Sparkles, a unicorn sticker that a young fan gave him.
But all of that magic is nowhere to be seen in the 2026 campaign. Sainz and Alex Albon have been mediocre at best. Yes, it’s always hard adjusting to new regulations, but continuing to flounder toward the bottom of the pack midway through the season is not acceptable for a historic team like Williams.
Points: 11 (Carlos Sainz 6, Alex Albon 5)
Haas: C-
Haas has never been a title contender and the team isn’t exactly failing, but they’ve kind of drifted into obscurity this season. It’s hard to even remember who their drivers are. Surprisingly, young driver Oliver Bearman is doing better than Esteban Ocon, who has a few years on the British driver. Beloved team principal Guenther Steiner left ahead of the 2024 season after scoring only 12 points for a last-place finish in 2023. The team actually has been performing better on the track under Ayao Komatsu’s leadership and scored 58 and 79 points, respectively, in the last two campaigns. At the summer break, they are a little behind that pace, but what’s really lacking on this team is star power.
Points: 21 (Oliver Bearman 18, Esteban Ocon 3)
Cadillac: C
Cadillac has yet to score a point in its first Formula 1 season. Veteran drivers Sergio “Checo” Pérez and Valtteri Bottas have nine DNFs between the two of them in 11 races. Their best performance so far was at the Chinese Grand Prix early in the season where Bottas finished 13th and Pérez was 15th.
The thing about Formula 1 is that it isn’t ALL about winning. For its first campaign on the grid, Cadillac has done an excellent job building buzz while they’re figuring out the technical aspects of the sport. They revealed their livery during a Super Bowl commercial and had billboards in Los Angeles during NBA All-Star Weekend. They made a bold choice to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States with a stars and stripes livery ironically at the British Grand Prix. Even if the team is quite horrendous on the track, they definitely get bonus points for its marketing game off of it.
Points: 0 (Sergio “Checo” Pérez 0, Valtteri Bottas 0)
Alpine: C
Similar to Haas, Alpine hasn’t exactly failed expectations, but hasn’t exactly excelled, either. At least they’ve given us something to pay attention to. Their dramatic highlight of the season was at the famed Monaco Grand Prix. Pierre Gasly finished third for his first podium of the season. He was given two penalties for speeding in the pit lane, which knocked him down to seventh place. But the FIA overturned the penalties and he was given third place again. Too bad the ruling came after the podium celebration, which would have been a big morale booster for the team.
Points: 61 (Pierre Gasly 42, Franco Colapinto 19)
McLaren: C
McLaren has struggled to adjust to the new regulations and have been inconsistent this season so far as it hopes to win its third straight team title. Both Lando Norris, the defending champion, and Oscar Piastri didn’t even start the Chinese Grand Prix. But two races later, they excelled at the Miami Grand Prix, where Norris got his maiden F1 win two seasons ago. Norris won the sprint with Piastri finishing just behind him. Then they finished second and third in the main race. The British driver finished the first half of the 2026 campaign strong at the Hungarian Grand Prix by getting his first race win of the season, but Piastri registered another DNF.
The Papaya squad is still known as one of the coolest teams on the grid (Norris has his own Monster Energy drink and recently did a bit with YouTube comedy group Sidemen). They might be third in the Constructors’ Championship because when they do well, they thrive. But when they do poorly, they really dive and we have to grade accordingly.
Points: 220 (Lando Norris 128, Oscar Piastri 92)
Audi: C+
This season, Audi took over Sauber, which went through many iterations in its Formula 1 stint and was known as the neon green Kick Sauber team last year. The German automotive company has a rich motorsport history, notably at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This is their first attempt at F1 and they’re not doing half bad. They enlisted a balanced team of veteran Nico Hülkenberg and second-year racer Gabriel Bortoleto. The Hulk, who delighted fans last year when he got his first podium at Silverstone, just scored his first points with a ninth place finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix, the last competition before the summer break. Bortoleto has finished in the points a handful of times and his best finish was eighth at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Audi might not be as splashy as the other new team, Cadillac, but their sleek sliver and red livery feels classic and they’ve been engaging well with fans throughout the season.
Points: 12 (Gabriel Bortoleto 10, Nico Hülkenberg 2)
Red Bull Racing: B
It seems like so long ago that Red Bull Racing utterly dominated F1. But it’s only been a year and a half since Max Verstappen won his fourth straight Drivers’ Championship. For several years now, the Dutch driver has been the golden child and the second driver, whether it’s Sergio “Checo” Pérez, Alexander Albon or Yuki Tsunoda, played the background. This year, Red Bull promoted Isack Hadjar after only one year on Racing Bulls and not much has changed. The French-Algerian driver nearly got a podium at Monaco when Pierre Gasly was given a penalty. But Gasly was reinstated to third position, surely deflating Hadjar and Red Bull. Otherwise, Verstappen has landed four podiums so far this season, heading into the break with a second and third place finish, which has to have the team feeling decent.
Points: 177 (Max Verstappen 109, Isack Hadjar 68)
Ferrari: B
A major highlight of the season so far was Lewis Hamilton winning his first race with Ferrari when he crossed the checkered flag first at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. He also shared the podium with Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff and his former engineer Peter “Bono” Bonnington, showing it’s all love with his former team. It’s clear a weight has been lifted for the seven-time champion in his second season with the outfit despite the new regulations. Charles Leclerc has been performing well, also. He won his first British Grand Prix and shared the podium with Hamilton, who finished third.
The reason the Scuderia don’t get a higher grade is because this performance is expected of them. If anything, the standard at Ferrari is to be the best of the best, which they still aren’t.
Points: 307 (Lewis Hamilton 169, Charles Leclerc 138)
Racing Bulls: B+
Racing Bulls have been impressive. They have the lone rookie on the grid in Arvid Lindblad. The 18-year-old caught attention right away when he battled Lewis Hamilton early in the first race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix, and then finished eighth. His teammate, Liam Lawson, has also been raking in points. The team’s best finish is when Lawson finished sixth and Lindblad finished seventh. They did so twice, at the British Grand Prix and Monaco.
Even though fans were sad to see the duo of Lawson and Isack Hadjar broken up when the latter was promoted to Red Bull Racing the past offseason, Lindblad has stepped in just fine. He’s racing well on the track and off of it, he’s showing a great personality on social media.
Points: 66 (Liam Lawson 43, Arvid Lindblad 23)
Mercedes: A
We knew from the jump that Mercedes was a force to be reckoned with after finishing 1-2 at the Australian Grand Prix. George Russell, the preseason favorite to win the championship, took that first win. But 19-yer-old Kimi Antonelli is carrying the momentum from a record-breaking rookie season effortlessly. He has won six races and had a podium finish in all but two of the races so far. And he can’t even legally drink the champagne! Antonelli became the youngest driver to win the Monaco Grand Prix and is the youngest competitor to lead the Drivers’ Championship in the motorsport series’ history. If Italian sports fans are sad their national team didn’t make the World Cup this summer, they should definitely tune into F1 because this kid is making the country proud.
Besides their dominance on the track, Mercedes is on top of its sponsorship game, too, especially via their adidas partnership. It really has fly merch and even had a collaboration with adidas’ Y-3 brand designed by Yohji Yamamoto. Toto Wolff was modeling!
Points: 379 (Kimi Antonelli 219, George Russell 160)
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Grading Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and other F1 teams at the 2026 summer break
