Formula 1 is less than one-third of the way into its 2026 season, but the races will now come thick and fast through the summer. European leg of the calendar.Back-to-back rounds in Monaco and Barcelona this month opened a phase of six races in eight weeks leading up to the August summer break.Not only will it be a crucial phase for the world championship fight, with Kimi Antonelli currently leading from Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, but it should also start warming up F1’s driver market looking into 2027, a period affectionately known as ‘silly season.’Drivers who find themselves with their contracts about to expire will be starting to consider their options, as will teams pondering a possible shake-up if they have seats available.So far, the market has been fairly quiet. Charles Leclerc signed a new Ferrari contract that was confirmed at the start of the month, sewing up his future at the Italian team. But there have otherwise been no big public announcements.Yet there are also several big names whose futures could define whether the market remains quiet overall or spikes into overdrive.Will Verstappen stick around?Despite being under contract at Red Bull through to 2028, Max Verstappen is no stranger to speculation linking him with a move away from the team. This summer is unlikely to be any different.Verstappen himself laid the foundations for much of that discourse through his damning criticism of F1’s new cars early in the 2026 season, which rely much more on electrical engine power than before.He called them “anti-racing” and “not a lot of fun” to drive in preseason, and said after the season’s third race, in Japan, that he was giving thought to his long-term future on the grid.Since then, F1 has decided to tweak its engine rules in two steps across 2027 and 2028, which Verstappen said in Spain were developments “heading in the right direction” for his future, even if he wished it were happening all in one go for next year.He didn’t address whether the changes would be enough to keep him on the grid, but his criticism has grown less vocal in recent races.If Verstappen were to keep racing in F1, then there’s the question of whether he stays at Red Bull or moves elsewhere. While he has time to run on his contract, clauses would allow him to depart at the end of the year if he’s not in a set championship position — believed to be in the top two places — at a certain point of the season.Max Verstappen at the 2026 Austrian GP. (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)Red Bull has struggled for performance so far in 2026, limiting Verstappen to a single podium finish in the first seven races. Yet it has already produced a good engine, deemed to be the best in F1 by the FIA, and the rate of development is so steep early in any new-rules era that big performance gains can arrive quickly.Red Bull has always been Verstappen’s F1 home. He loves working with the team. But he did lose one of his key ‘pillars’ in team advisor Helmut Marko at the end of last year, while another, his race engineer GianPiero Lambiase, will join McLaren in the next 18 months.The team with which he ruled F1 through the early 2020s has changed a great deal.But if Verstappen were to seek an exit, obvious options are not clear. Mercedes has been the team linked most fiercely with the Dutchman in the past couple of years, as team principal Toto Wolff is a huge admirer of his talents.Wolff revealed last year he had talks with the Dutchman’s camp to get an understanding of his future, and would surely be a keen observer of any possible movement.Yet with Russell signed to a multi-year deal and Antonelli stunning the F1 world with his form this year, there’s no competitive reason for why Mercedes would want a change, even with the appealing possibility of running a proven champion in Verstappen.Given Ferrari and McLaren’s line-ups are also set for the foreseeable future, it may well make staying put with Red Bull Verstappen’s best option for 2027.Alonso, Aston Martin and AlpineFernando Alonso entered 2026 ready to fulfill a long-held F1 dream by driving an Adrian Newey-designed car for the very first time. The arrival of Newey, the most successful car designer in F1 history, and the start of a works partnership with Honda, fueled hope that Aston could make a leap forward.The reality has turned out very differently. A late start to testing and limited preseason mileage amid recurring reliability dramas has left Alonso scrambling at the very back of the grid; a far cry from where a driver of his double-world-champion quality should be fighting.At 44, Alonso knows he is nearing the end of his F1 career, even hinting at the last race in Barcelona it could be his final appearance at the track given it does not return to the F1 calendar until 2028.He’s long expressed faith in the Aston project, bankrolled by billionaire Lawrence Stroll, with the goal of becoming the next great F1 team. But this year will surely have tested that belief at the very least.Fernando Alonso driving at the 2026 Barcelona-Catalunya GP. (Clive Rose/Getty Images)One link that emerged over the Barcelona race weekend was a possible shock back switch to Alpine, and a possible Alonso reunion with Flavio Briatore, the team’s executive advisor. Alonso won his world titles in 2005 and 2006 with the Enstone-based team, back when it was known as Renault and run by Briatore. He had last left it at the end of 2022 to join Aston.Briatore has been back in charge at Alpine since 2024 and the team is now enjoying an upswing in performance. With a bumper sponsorship deal with fashion brand Gucci arriving next year, there is an argument for a possible Alonso return as his status would bring added eyeballs to the team; an interesting dynamic to throw into talks about his future.Speaking to reporters on Thursday in Austria, Alonso said there were “always rumors” about his future, but underlined his current commitment to Aston.“I believe in this project,” Alonso said, adding that his goal was to win a world title as part of the team, be it in the car or in a different role, such as within Aston’s management. The team later pointedly shared a graphic with his quote on social media.