Domenicali's F1 dinner marks 22-driver grid shift

All 22 Formula 1 drivers gathered on Thursday night for Stefano Domenicali’s traditional Austrian Grand Prix dinner at the Red Bull Ring, with the latest edition reflecting both the championship’s expansion to an 11-team grid and the unusually broad spread of ages now sharing the paddock.

The dinner, hosted by Formula 1 CEO and president Domenicali on the eve of track action in Spielberg, has become a regular part of the Austrian weekend during his time in charge. What began as an informal initiative has grown into one of the calendar’s established off-track rituals, bringing the full grid together before Free Practice 1 and Free Practice 2.

This year’s gathering underlined how much the makeup of the field has changed. Fernando Alonso, 44, and Lewis Hamilton, 41, were part of the same dinner lineup as 18-year-old Arvid Lindblad, the youngest driver on the 2026 grid.

There were also two extra places at the table compared with 2025 because Cadillac has joined Formula 1 as the 11th team this season. Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas were both in attendance as part of that expanded field.

While the evening is framed mainly as a social occasion, it has carried significance beyond that in previous years. Domenicali has used the setting before to discuss sporting developments with drivers, including the introduction of the Sprint format, giving the event a role in how Formula 1’s leadership and drivers interact away from the formal pressures of a race weekend.

Lewis Hamilton, the Ferrari driver, described the appeal of the tradition last year: “We like to spend some time together away from the commitments of the race weekend.” He added that it is “an opportunity to talk about our passions too, to get to know each other better, because every year there are new guys and it’s great that they are welcomed in the best possible way.”

That made the Spielberg dinner more than a routine pre-weekend gathering, serving as a snapshot of a changing Formula 1 grid that is now larger, younger in places, and still anchored by some of its longest-serving names.