George Russell, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Alex Albon, Carlos Sainz, Oliver Bearman and Gabriel Bortoleto went on a trip together to the Malaysian island of Langkawi in the days before the 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix, staged at Sepang. They had five different teams between them, and nobody was counting constructors’ points.
That is what F1 friendships look like on this grid. They were not built in team motorhomes or sponsor suites. They were built in karts and junior formulae, long before anyone had a badge to defend.
Leclerc and Gasly: French karting roots
Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly go back to the French karting scene of the mid-2000s. By 2010, they were teammates at Sodikart and finished 1-2 in the French karting championship. Gasly took the title. “We grew up together,” he explained later. Leclerc dates their shared story back to 2005, his first French championship.
The third member of that group was Anthoine Hubert. Hubert died in a Formula 2 crash at Spa on the Saturday of the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix weekend. Gasly, who had been sent back from Red Bull to Toro Rosso weeks earlier, asked Leclerc to win for their late friend. Leclerc did, taking his first F1 victory and dedicating it to Hubert. The loss still sits at the centre of one of the closest F1 friendships on the grid.
The friendship has been tested on track since, including a first-lap collision at the 2021 Styrian Grand Prix, and it has held. Leclerc drives for Ferrari and Gasly for Alpine now. Both have named the other as their best friend in the paddock, which makes theirs the best-known of the F1 friendship between rival teams.
Russell and Albon: F1 friendships with a 2018 chapter
Russell and Albon have raced each other since 2011, when both were in karting alongside Leclerc. Russell remembers the three of them as teammates that year, getting up to plenty of mischief. Albon was a few years older and was already competing in the top karting class.
Their paths crossed again in the 2018 Formula 2 season, along with Norris. Russell won the title by 68 points from Norris, who finished seven points clear of Albon. All three stepped up to F1 in 2019, and Albon got the fastest promotion of them, moving up to Red Bull mid-season in place of the demoted Gasly. Russell admitted there were some jealous glances.
Then the roles reversed. Red Bull dropped Albon after 2020, and at the end of 2021 Russell was leaving Williams for Mercedes. He did not leave quietly.
“I definitely told the guys who I thought would be best suited,” Russell said, calling the choice close between Albon and Nyck de Vries for the vacant Williams seat.
Albon later joked that the Williams board told him they could not really take Russell’s opinion on board because he was “too supportive.” He said he owed Russell a couple of beers. It is a rare case of F1 friendships reaching into a team’s driver decision.
The care goes both ways. When Albon was taken to hospital at Monza in 2022 with appendicitis and suffered respiratory failure after surgery, Russell was in contact with his family that Saturday night. It looked “pretty scary” at one point, Russell said.
The lighter side has survived as well. At the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix, Albon tactically slowed down their pace and built a gap under the mandatory two-stop rules, which pushed Russell to bunch up with the backmarkers. Frustrated by this, the Briton overtook Albon illegally by cutting across the chicane and refused to give the position back. The stewards handed Russell a drive through penalty which dropped him to P11.
Post-race, Russell had joked that Albon would have to treat him to dinner to make up for the tactics used in the race. Albon upheld his side of the promise as he paid for a dinner where Russell ordered the lobster pasta. He then said that the bill was “definitely not even just yet.”
It is moments like these that keep F1 friendships going between races.
Verstappen and Norris: grew up together-ish
Max Verstappen and Norris first knew of each other around 2012 and 2013, when both were karting in Europe. “We kind of grew up together-ish,” Norris said. They never actually raced each other as kids, but Verstappen remembers how quick Norris was. In March 2023 he called Norris his best friend on the grid. They are among the most visible F1 friendships in the paddock, and the pair have been spotted flying to races together and racing on the simulator.
Then they became title rivals. In 2024, they collided at the Austrian Grand Prix, which ended Norris’ race. Verstappen spent his Silverstone press session saying the friendship was his priority. After he clinched the title in Las Vegas, he told Norris his time would come. Norris said they were “still good friends.”
It came a year later. The 2025 championship went to the final round in Abu Dhabi, where Verstappen won the race and still lost the title. Norris finished third and took it by two points, 423 to 421, giving McLaren its first drivers’ championship in 17 years. Verstappen congratulated him, and Norris called him and Piastri his two biggest competitors of the season.
At Red Bull’s 2026 launch, Verstappen was asked whether the fight had cost them the friendship. He said it had never changed and that things got “spicy” with some fun in it. Norris is the reigning world champion this year and Verstappen has found his form again, winning the Singapore Grand Prix from pole on 11 October.
Few F1 friendships have been tested this publicly, and this one came through both title fights.
Antonelli and Bearman: the newest of the F1 friendships
Kimi Antonelli and Bearman first raced each other in 2021 in the junior categories. Bearman remembers racing Antonelli a little in F4 and a lot on the simulator. In 2024, they became PREMA teammates in F2, and that spring Bearman was called up for a one-off F1 debut with Ferrari in Jeddah, replacing Sainz, who had appendicitis. He scored points. Antonelli said he had expected nothing less.
Later that year, Bearman said, “One day I hope to fight for a world championship with him.” Both became full-time F1 drivers in 2025, Antonelli at Mercedes and Bearman at Haas, and Antonelli said the relationship carried on. He also helped Bearman with his Italian.
That hope looks closer now. Antonelli leads the 2026 standings by 102 points after Singapore and could clinch the title at the United States Grand Prix on 25 October. Few F1 friendships get a title race this early in their story. If he does, Bearman will be on the same grid when it happens.
Bortoleto and Colapinto: South American karting roots
Brazil’s Bortoleto and Argentina’s Franco Colapinto have known each other since childhood karting, according to Bortoleto. They climbed through the junior ranks together, and in June 2024 they shared the front of the F2 field at the Red Bull Ring. Bortoleto won his first F2 race and Colapinto finished second.
That November, Bortoleto was confirmed at Sauber, now known as Audi, a seat Colapinto had also been linked with. Colapinto commented on the announcement to back him. Bortoleto has since joked that a future title fight could spark a “Pelé-Maradona” rivalry. The reference is that of a football comparison between Brazil and Argentina.
He added that he would rather race someone he knows. It shows how F1 friendships can cross continents as well as team lines. Bortoleto drives for Audi and Colapinto for Alpine, so the two meet on track every race weekend.
There is a pattern that persists. Each began on a junior grid, grew through shared seasons and survived the split into rival garages. Leclerc, Russell and Albon even shared a karting team in 2011, so some of these F1 friendships overlap like a family tree. The details differ, but the foundation is the same: time spent racing alongside each other before the stakes got big.
Seven drivers from five teams took a trip together to Langkawi. F1 friendships like these were formed before the team colours arrived, and the colours have not managed to undo them.
