f2 standings (before melbourne):

I think this is accurate, pls lmk if I'm wrong. People with sponsors and people higher up are more likely to promote, as well as f1 teams that will change drivers next year.

f1 info:

Guaranteed Mercedes is losing their main driver Lewis Hamilton (he's going to Ferrari), so the question is will Mercedes take one of their juniors in f2 or (more likely) will they steal Fernando Alonso from Aston Martin, leaving Aston Martin with an empty seat. Alternatively, they might instead take Verstappen from Red Bull (he is dominating, but Red Bull team drama -> he might leave), leaving the big team with an empty seat. (I'm not sure if they would in that scenario promote one of their reserve drivers from Racing Bulls (Visa RB), because ngl Tsunoda is bad (they should drop him) and Riccardo is vetteran-y). There is a different market on this: https://manifold.markets/SimonGrayson/who-will-replace-lewis-hamilton-at

Any/All of Alpine, HAAS, and Sauber (yes ik the name change but I refuse to call it "Stake") might try out a new driver because they all absolutely suck right now, and hopefully Williams will replace Sergeant because he sucks (performing noticeably worse than Albon, why is he still there?), though I think they will either keep Albon or he will switch teams to a modern big name like Red Bull or maybe even Mercedes. As for McLaren, Lando might stay, might move to Mercedes or Red Bull, I'm not sure. Piastri probably will stay with McLaren.

pls lmk if I missed/forgot anything leading up to Melbourne, or if anything is inaccurate here.