Racing in Fort Lauderdale
Ferrari of Fort Lauderdale races in the Ferrari Challenge North America series. Meet the drivers, see the cars, and follow the season from the paddock.
Home > Blog > Ferrari Racing > Ferrari F1 Drivers 2026: Leclerc, Hamilton, and the Team Behind Them
Share this post:
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton are Scuderia Ferrari’s Formula 1 drivers for the 2026 season. Leclerc, a Ferrari Driver Academy graduate, has raced for the team since 2019. Hamilton joined in 2025 after seven world championships with McLaren and Mercedes. Antonio Giovinazzi serves as reserve driver.
Monégasque · with Ferrari since 2019
British · with Ferrari since 2025
*All time records
Reserve driver: Antonio Giovinazzi, a 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours winner who splits his time between F1 simulator duties and Ferrari’s World Endurance Championship hypercar program.
Leclerc’s path to Maranello was built by design. Raised in Monaco and mentored early by the late Jules Bianchi, he joined the Ferrari Driver Academy in 2016 and won the GP3 and Formula 2 titles in consecutive seasons.
He spent a single season at Sauber before Ferrari promoted him for 2019, and he out-scored four-time champion Sebastian Vettel before his first year with the team was over. That has made him the Scuderia’s continuity through a decade of regulation changes.
The 2026 season gave him one of the defining results of his career. His win at Silverstone was Ferrari’s 250th Grand Prix victory, a milestone no other constructor has reached.
Hamilton’s story starts long before Ferrari. He joined McLaren’s junior program at thirteen, debuted in Formula 1 in 2007, and won his first world title the following year.
Six more championships followed at Mercedes between 2014 and 2020, and with them the all-time records for wins and pole positions. When he announced his move to Ferrari in early 2024, it was widely described as the most significant driver transfer of the modern era.
He made his race debut for the team in 2025, and his first win in red came at the 2026 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. The full race report covers how that day unfolded.
Leclerc and Hamilton arrived at Ferrari from opposite directions, and it shows in how they work.
Leclerc, the insider
Monaco → Driver Academy 2016 → Sauber 2018 → Ferrari 2019
Raised around Maranello’s engineers and mechanics, with a driving style built on aggressive, high-speed corner entry.
Hamilton, the outsider
Stevenage → McLaren 2007 → Mercedes 2013 → Ferrari 2025
Two decades of British and German team philosophies, now applying deep telemetry work and long-run tire management to a new platform.
Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur coached Leclerc as a rookie and has known Hamilton for decades, which has helped build a garage where the two approaches sharpen each other.
Both are now working the same problem: extracting performance from the SF-26 and F1’s reset 2026 regulations, with active aerodynamics and a power unit that splits output almost evenly between combustion and electric.
Ferrari is the only constructor to have contested every Formula 1 season since the championship began in 1950. Leclerc and Hamilton now carry a lineage that runs through some of the most significant names the sport has produced.
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton are the full-time race drivers for 2026.
He signed in early 2024 and made his race debut for the team in 2025.
Since 2019, after graduating from the Ferrari Driver Academy and a rookie season with Sauber.
Antonio Giovinazzi, who also races for Ferrari in the World Endurance Championship.
Frédéric Vasseur, who has led the team since 2023 and has long-standing relationships with both drivers.
No — 2025 marked the first time the two have raced as teammates at any level.
Leclerc races under No. 16; Hamilton under No. 44.
Leclerc signed a new extension in June 2026 that runs through at least 2028, with reports suggesting it could keep him at Ferrari into the early 2030s.
Hamilton has confirmed he’s under contract at least through 2027, with a reported option for an additional year in 2028.
Ferrari of Fort Lauderdale races in the Ferrari Challenge North America series. Meet the drivers, see the cars, and follow the season from the paddock.