Meet The 2026 Formula 1 Drivers!

I'd love to go on the moon. That's an eventful life to be living. Well, I kind of already have a pet badger. We'll probably just fall down like 100 feet. What would my superpower be? Stay an age and live forever. What age would you stay? Three. Hi, I'm Landon Norris and I drive for McLaren MasterCard Formula 1 team. My name is Max Steppen and I drive for Oracle Rebel Racing. Please introduce yourself. What's your name and what team do you drive for? That got a whole lot harder this year. My name is Oskar Piastri and I drive for the McLaren MasterCard Formula 1 team. I'm George Russell and I drive for Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 team. What's a surprising fact that people might not know about you? You ask me this every year, so there's no more surprising facts. I am Charles Leclerc and I drive for Scuderia Ferrari HP. I'm Lewis Hamilton and I race for Scuderia Ferrari HP. My name is Andre Kimi Antonelli and I drive for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 team. My name is Alex Albon and I race for Atlassian Williams F1 team. Is that correct? I'm Carlos Sainz and I drive for Atlassian Williams F1 team. We are talent breathing the weather in some of the teams I've been through. They call me the shepherd. My name is Fernando Alonso and I race for Aston Martin Aranco Formula 1 team. Nico Hulkenberg, Audi Revolut F1 team. I'm Isa Khadjar and I drive for Oracle Red Bull Racing. I am Oliver Bauman and I drive for TGR Haas Formula 1 team. I'm Liam Lawson and I drive for Visa Keshet Racing Bulls. If I could be a character in any movie, it'd be Lightning McQueen. So my name is Esteban Ocon and I drive for Toyota Gazoo Racing Haas F1 team. Hey, it's Lance Stroh from Aston Martin Aranco Formula 1 team. My name is Arvid Lemblad and I drive for Visa Keshet Racing Bulls. Hi, I'm Pierre Gasly. I'm 30 years old from Normandy in France and I race for BWT Alpine Formula 1 team. My name is Gabriel Purcelletto and I drive for Audi Revolut F1 team. I'm Franco Gugliapinto and I drive for BWT Alpine Formula 1 team. I'm Sergio Perez and I drive for Cadillac F1 team. My name is Valtteri Bottas and I race for Cadillac Formula 1 team. My current obsession at the moment is Formula 1 cars, especially Cadillac Formula 1 cars. They are amazing. Why did you want to be a racing driver? I didn't. I remember very clearly, my dad was watching the F1 on the sofa at home and I came and sat down next to him and I just thought it was really cool and I wanted to be there one day. I just fell in love with it when I was a kid. I mean, of course, I had my parents race. When they brought me to the go-kart track, you naturally get influenced by it, I would say. But at the same time, I mean, my parents always left it open. I could play any kind of sport that I wanted and I tried different sports. But for me, just the racing feeling was the best and I enjoyed it the most. And the ultimate goal is Formula 1. I just loved racing as a kid. I liked going fast, trying to be competitive and I really didn't want to do any other job. Because that's what Ayrton Senna did and I love cars. My dad used to love it when he was younger and when I was growing up. I used to play it on the PlayStation, I saw it on TV and my love actually started with motorbikes. So therefore, I fell in love with engines and motor racing. And then eventually, that switched to go-karts and on to Formula 1. Who from the F1 grid would you like to be stuck in a lift with? None. No one from the F1 grid. It's pretty easy to answer who I don't want to be. Preferably no one, but if I absolutely had to, Max and my teammate Gabi. Probably Nico because he's a fun guy and we would just be chatting until the elevator doesn't come back alive. I guess Gabi. Actually, we live in the same apartment, so the likelihood is high. Probably with Gabi, yeah. We would laugh a lot. I would like to see him try to fix it. He'll probably just fall down like 100 feet. Okay, Alex. I'll probably pick Charles. Any of my teammates or past teammates. Valtteri, I feel like he'll be quite quiet. I would probably go for somebody who I know well, which would be Luis because I spent five years as his teammate, so I probably know him the wellest from the grid. What is your trick to winding down after a race? My trick to winding down after a race? Nature. I go by myself or maximum with my partner to the nature doing sports. Just enjoying going home, spending time with the family, not think about formal ones straight away. Easily put things into perspective. Listen to some music, just watch some series or a movie or something. And honestly, I can then wind down pretty quickly. Yeah, if I want to just fully chill out, I normally just scroll on TikTok on my phone or something. Just brain rot. Catching up on sleep, seeing your friends, your family. Yeah, just becoming a normal human in between races. If you could instantly master any hobby, what would it be? Surfing. I would love to surf. Probably being a pro at skydiving would be good or being able to ride a bike. I can ride a bike. Yeah. Well, probably paddle at the moment. Probably play a bit better at paddle. You know, that's the fun sport to play right now and it's been for a while. Just a bit more athletic, a bit more elegant, stuff like that. Yeah, definitely paddle to beat all the other drivers. If you could have one, what superpower would you want? What would my superpower be? Stay an age and live forever. What age would you stay? Three. Massive strength or being invisible. I mean, I would love to be able to fly. But if you're not immortal, then crash landing probably won't work out. Every other superpower that someone picks, they die unless they choose to not die. So I would say live forever. 20, 30, 30s. But I'm yet to be there, so I might change my mind when I get there. I mean, I just think of Superman. I think he's just flying. It's pretty awesome. Being able to fly so I stop spending money in planes and flights. Hopefully with a carry-on as well. I would love to be able to teleport from place to another. So that would stop wasting time on flights. Teleportation. I used to really like Spider-Man when I was younger. So yeah, I don't know if I could... Like, I don't really know what you call that. Shoot webs. Okay, well that kind of rolls into the next question, which is if you could be a character in any movie franchise, what would it be? Yeah, if I could choose any character, I'd be Spider-Man. Spider-Man. Superman or Spider-Man. I'd say some good ones, for sure. I'm sure people have said Lightning McQueen. No, I don't think anyone said that. No. If I could be a character in any movie, it'd be Lightning McQueen. I could see Iron Man being one. I would love to be either Iron Man or Spider-Man. Who's just absolutely loaded and is having a good time? Iron Man. Iron Man it is. I like The Flash. I used to watch it. Tom Cruise. Top Gun. Knight Rider. Harry in Harry Potter. Oh, good one. I'd like to be in any of the Tarantino movies. Do you know what you would like to play? I'd like to play Brad Pitt in Inglourious Basterds. I was going to say Jason Bourne, but that's an eventful life to be living. I think James Bond is probably a pretty cool one to be. James Bond. I would definitely be James Bond. I'd be Bart Simpson, why not? Honestly, any side role in a Marvel movie or DC Comics movie would be good. You don't fancy a main character role? No, no, I'm fine. I'll leave it to the big boys. What's your guilty pleasure? Many guilty pleasures. Probably chocolate being one of the biggest. Chocolate, yeah. Just a lot of pancakes, milkshakes. Probably red wine. Fizzy drinks or chocolates. Desserts. That would be chocolate fondant. I don't know if you know about that, but that's... With the melt in the middle. Yes, exactly. That's nice. It's really nice, yeah. I do like pizza and a burger. Asado is my number one. It's like a barbecue, but much better than the barbecues you know, so you should try it. I enjoy indulging in a pack of Haribo's or something. Was ice cream, but it's not anymore, because I've got my ice cream company that is very low in calories. But apart from that, chocolate. Chocolate, okay. Nicely done, I like that. What is something you've always wanted to do, but have never been able to? Ooh, that's a good question. Cancel these interviews. I try every year. Spend more time with my good friends and family. Travel more in the world for non-racing activities. I'd love to go on the moon one day. It's quite optimistic. Who knows, maybe one day. Skydiving. Probably skydiving, or fly. I like flying, so getting a helicopter license or something would be sick. Visit the Australian Open, because it always clashes with pre-season. Honestly, I always wanted to see a 100m final, but I never got to. Probably speak a language, another language. And it's just not happening at the moment. Probably ski. I've not done many times in my life, and now I cannot as well. So, too risky for me. I've always wanted to play an instrument, but didn't get there yet. Which one would you choose? Probably either guitar or piano. I would have loved to have been able to be good at some kind of musical instrument, or sing well. You know, like them videos, X-Factory things, where they can sing really well, and I'm like, oh, I wish I could sing like that. Never too late. It is. My voice is not good. Where is one place that you haven't visited that you'd love to travel to? The moon. But apart from the moon, Africa. This is definitely on my bucket list of places I want to go and visit and spend time. Probably South Africa. I've not been there yet, so that would be really cool. This would be two. Kind of safari style. And I'd love to kind of go around the Nordic countries. I heard it's beautiful over there, so yeah. I'd love to visit New Zealand. I think I would love to go to like some Philippine islands. I would love to visit Philippines when I get time. I have a lot of good friends from there. Tahiti and Saint Barthélemy, the French island. Tokyo. I've not been in Tokyo yet. Hopefully this year I manage to visit Tokyo. Any Japanese islands. Be sick. I would love to go to the northernmost island in Japan. I love being in the mountains, so I would definitely go there. Maybe next winter. One is definitely Antarctica. I've never been down there, down the south. I've been obviously North Pole, but south, no. Where I really, really want to go is like I want to travel through India and then make my way up through the Himalayas. That's like a future dream for me. And then I want to climb Mount Everest, so yeah. Maybe Maldives? The Maldives. Is it Maldives? Yeah. Maldives. I've never heard of Maldives before. I knew what you meant. Are you serious? I didn't know what you said. The Maldives. What is it? Maldives. In Spanish it's Maldivas. Thank you very much. I still didn't say it correctly, but I'm closer. Thank you. Do you want me to ask again? No, I'm happy with Maldives. You're happy with Maldives? OK, that's great. What languages would you love to learn in the future? I don't know. Anything. Oh, that's a difficult one. Yeah, obviously Spanish. It's simple things, but like talking fully Italian would be very good. I think it's useful also in this paddock. I don't speak anything other than English, which is embarrassing, but I would say I probably need Italian the most, considering I'm with an Italian team. Italian. Why not? It has a nice flair to it. I'm working on it. Of course Italian. I'm slowly improving and I'm trying to learn French as well. Spanish would be useful because, you know, in the end it's a very popular language in the world and my teammate Checo, he speaks Spanish. Well, I mean, in my case, probably Portuguese would be quite handy. What's a surprising fact that people might not know about you? You ask me this every year, so there's no more surprising facts. Nothing really. I'm not that surprising. Think of anything? Surprising fact. That I like doing house jobs, like hoovering, emptying the dishwasher. It's pretty relaxing. No, there's nothing springing to mind. I think people know about this. I broke my collarbone cycling with George Russell. I gave him my bike because his bike got stolen the day before, but then the spare bike that I used didn't have brakes. And I went down a cycle path and there was a big jump and I couldn't brake for it and I jumped over it and I broke my collarbone. I honestly feel like people know already everything about me. Like there's no secrets. So I think I'm an open book already. I'm good at reading the weather. A surprising fact is I actually started with motocross when I was three. I did not know that. I'm ADHD. When I walk into a room or my house, like I really, really like moving all the books, perfect position. And it really frustrates the life out of me when I see something off, like my lamp is tilted to the left. I walk into my house and I go around the whole house before I even sit down, like rearranging everything. And then like an hour's gone by and I'm like, damn it. I just didn't even realise. Probably, well, last night I slept 12 hours. You guys are all jealous. What is your biggest fear or biggest ick? Sharks. My biggest fear is sharks. I go crazy. Australia, big no in the water. I mean, sharks are pretty scary. So yeah, I wouldn't want to come across a shark. I would say snakes. I don't really like snakes. So I don't like spiders, snakes, like scorpions, these things. I'm not happy with them. My biggest fear was just something I really don't like, is spiders. My biggest fear, rational one, is heights. I don't mind flying, but if I'm walking on a cliff face or hiking in general, I'm really bad, awful. We were in the Dolomites last year and in some parts of the trail, I had to literally go on my butt and just like scoop myself forwards. Biggest ick is when people produce noises while eating. It's pineapple on pizza. Oh, okay. Interesting. Okay. You like pineapple on pizza? Yeah. Oh my God. I feel like we have to go with the Italian here at the very least. What's your current obsession? Is there something you can't get enough of at the moment? Is it a TV show, a food, an activity? My current obsession at the moment is Formula 1 cars, especially Cadillac Formula 1 cars. They're amazing. Beautifully done. Trying to lower my handicap at golf. How are you getting on? Not good. I am obsessed with my golf game at the moment, my paddle game and chess. I've been really into recently Mobland. That's been really fun to watch. I like gaming in general. Yeah. I mean, it's not an obsession. I just enjoy it. Yeah. Probably gaming and Counter-Strike 2. I really love sim racing and then also I really love remote control cars. Current obsession, I watch a lot of movies just with travel and a current series that I love is Landman. There is an artist who I'm listening to every single day at the moment, but it's pretty rogue. So I'm actually going to keep that a bit of a secret. Okay. It'll be quite unexpected, I think. I'll tell you at the end of the year. Who is a person outside of F1 that you admire or even idolise? Outside of F1, I admire Lord Rafael Nadal. Since I was a kid, my idol was Valentino Rossi. Still is, but the best bit is I managed to meet him a few times now and became good friends with him. So that was, yeah, another dream, I guess, that came true. I would say Tadej Bogacar. Michael Jordan, I've said before. Michael Jordan. Novak Djokovic for his sort of determination and will. His drive to keep on pushing. Messi, I do admire him a lot. One I never met yet is Usain Bolt. So if he sees that, I'd like to meet him one day. Usain Bolt. He gave me love for sports in general. I think in general, I admire the people that don't give up, that keep pushing, you know, regardless of their job or their position. My mum is probably the person I'll choose. She's an inspiration in the way she keeps working extremely hard, always, and just for everything she's done for me. Well, there are two. My dad and my mum. My family, you know, I admire them a lot, everything they have done for me. My parents, because I think the older I get, the more I realise how much effort they had to put in for me to follow my passion. I don't really admire or idolise anyone. I mean, I just enjoy being with my friends, family, and that's it. That's the most important. What's a tradition from your family or your culture that you love? I love Sunday lunch with all the grandparents, cousins, sisters, grandsons, nephews. That's a nice Spanish tradition. I love my mum's couscous, yeah. I love Thai culture because of Buddhism in terms of its teachings. I think it's such a happy, grateful culture. Celebrate the big moments all together. Gather everybody of the family for the important dates. It's something that is important to me. Christmas for us is always great. You know, everyone of the family eating together, having fun together, having a great night and, you know, praying for our God. So, yeah. Sauna. I love sauna. Family culture, food, some good food. My dad is actually a great, very good chef. So, we always eat very well at home. Family, in general, that we are very close. Latin communities, Latin families are close all the time. More from my Caribbean side is what I would say I enjoy most. It's the music. You know, I used to go to my granddad's house in Grenada and there'll be music playing and there'll just be drums and just the island vibe. And then there'll be like just the best hot sauce, chicken wings and all the best food. Culture of my family is cars. You know, when I come home with my dad, you know, we discuss about cars, about a lot of things. And of course, my mom's always involved in that as well. And when we have free time, you know, we just put our hands dirty and do some stuff with cars. So, probably the culture is cars. I love that. If you could adopt an animal, real or mythical, what would it be? Simba is the only one in my life. Mythical would be a dragon. They seem pretty freaking awesome. I don't know, I think growing up Dumbo was just so cool. And then I've got to see some baby elephants recently, so I think an elephant would be pretty awesome. I'm sure there's other amazing animals that you could adopt. But at least that one wouldn't eat you. If I could adopt one mythical creature, it would be Baymax from Big Hero 6. You know those pigs that always stay really small? Micro pigs? Yeah, micro pig. Well, just a dog. I mean, I have a dog, but you know, big dog fan, dog lover. How many dogs would you adopt? All of them. Well, I've already got the perfect animal, the best I could wish for, which is Leo. But maybe another Dachshund, just for Leo to have a friend. I would love to have a dog. But I don't have time to take care of a dog. So unfortunately, I cannot have a dog. What kind of dog would you like? I like Golden Retriever. Well, I kind of already have a pet badger. But if I could adopt another one, I would love a pet Gala. You know what is a Gala? Gala is kind of like a parrot. It lives in Australia, like a pink bird. And they can actually speak and stuff. So that's the next one. I mean, the tiger is my favourite animal. So I would love to have a tiger at home, you know, to hug. Yeah, it's a big boy, but yeah. OK, I just want to go back. Sorry. We all want to go back. You've kind of got a pet badger. Yeah. But you need to explain more. We need to know. So at my place in Monaco, there's a badger that comes every night, basically. He, his name is Nigel. He eats the cat food every night. All of it. There you go. This is amazing news. Thank you so much. That's actually made my day.