Marko: Red Bull eye experienced replacement for Tsunoda – As Formula One heads towards the annual summer break, team bosses begin to make decisions regarding their driver lineups for 2026. At Ferrari and McLaren their drivers are under multi-year contracts but for Red Bull and Mercedes its a very different story.
Much has been written about the Verstappen to Mercedes talks which were confirmed by both George Russell and Toto Wolff at this year’s Austrian Grand Prix. Such has been the furore over the future of the quadruple world champion, the debacle that is the second seat at Red Bull has gone largely ignored.
Under heavy criticism at the half way stage of the 2024 F1 campaign, Sergio Perez had scored 188 points to his team mates 253. What a difference a year makes, at the same point this year Max has accumulated just 165 points but the second Red Bull seat has contributed a hopeless 7.
Tsunoda making Perez look like a champ
With Liam Lawson selected to replace Sergio Perez, hopes were high that the Red Bull junior would deliver the kind of results he had done in the part time roles for the junior team in the previous two seasons. But come the end of the Chinese Grand Prix, Red Bull decided Lawson’s two last place finishes were not good enough and demoted him to the Racing Bulls whilst promoting Yuki Tsunoda.
Now in his fifth season in Formula One, Tsunoda is not lacking in experience. Yet his inability to get to grips with the Red Bull car has been stark together with him failing to make it out of qualifying one on several occasions. With the summer break approaching, the headlines would usually be screaming for Red Bull to make a change to their driver lineup.
Yet despite a terrible outing at the recent Austrian Grand Prix, where errors and penalties saw the Japanese driver finish two laps behind the winner, Dr. Helmut Marko revealed the team had no plans to change Max Verstappen’s team mate.
“The plan is for him to finish the season, nothing has changed,” the Red Bull motorsport advisor told Kleine Zeitung. “We also have no alternative. There have been talks with him, also with the engineering team. He was completely out of his depth in Spielberg. We want to stabilise him and no longer set up the car so hard towards Max. That could help him.”
Marko makes unusual suggestion
Marko also said whilst Red Bull will first look to their pool of junior drivers, he did not exclude the possibility the team would look outside for an experienced driver. “We have Isack [Hadjar] also doing a good job and Liam finding his form as well. So, within the Red Bull pool, we have talent. But of course, you’re always open to what is outside of that. We want to field the best line-up that we can for next year,” said the 82 year old Austrian.
This is a change of tune for Marko, who has vehemently promoted his junior drivers ahead of all others for most of his career. Whilst the Red Bull consultant mentioned Isack Hadjar as a potential replacement for Tsunoda, the French Algerian claims he has not discussed the matter with the good doctor yet.
A number of high profile ex-F1 drivers have commented on Hadjar’s opportunity alongside Max Verstappen, although the consensus is broadly that would be a poisoned chalice to take. “I don’t bother with the rumour mill,” Hadjar told German publication Bild in Silverstone. “If you’re not fully focused on the moment, you won’t be part of these speculations for long. Because only successful drivers are associated with the top teams.
“Of course, I notice what’s being written in the media, but that doesn’t give me any sense of satisfaction or validation. To be honest, it actually annoys me,” said the Racing Bulls driver. Despite the voices warning the rookie driver of the danger of going up against Max Verstappen, as with any top young gun he believes he is up to the task.
McLaren now blame Verstappen for Piastri penalty
No conversations between Hadjar and Red Bull
“Every young driver at the Red Bull academy wants to make the jump to Formula 1 and then to Red Bull Racing,” he said. “I’m no exception. I’m not in Formula 1 just to be there. I want to achieve the maximum here. If they’d given me a McLaren, I would have been confident enough to say I wanted to become the first rookie ever to become world champion. And becoming champion is more realistic when you’re driving for one of the top teams.”
Yet Hadjar admits Dr. Marko has not yet broached the topic of a promotion to Red Bull with him yet saying: “He is satisfied with my performance and we talk, but not about this topic.”
Red Bull had the perfect opportunity to replace Sergio Perez with a top rated driver in Carlos Sainz, who lost his seat at Ferrari to make way for Lewis Hamilton. Yet rumours of trouble between the fathers of Verstappen and Sainz when they race for a season together at Toro Rosso, appear to be the reason Red Bull and their management failed to pull the trigger on the Spaniard.
Red Bull not the prized F1 seat it once was
As Cadillac join the grid in 2026, there will be two less experienced drivers available for other teams since their team boss implied they would look more favourably on experienced F1 racers. Amongst the drivers who would be interested in leaving their current midfield contracts, maybe just Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon are the only realistic prospects.
Valtteri Bottas and Kevin Magnussen are both possibilities who are out of the sport currently, although the Dane may fair no better than did Sergio Perez. Bottas may soon be snapped up by Alpine, as Falvio Briatore is coming to the end of his tether with the crash prone Franco Colapinto.
No one is certain which team will come out on top in 2026, due to the biggest car design ad powertrain regulation changes in living memory. Which means even the pull of the once champions of Formula One, is no longer as strong as it once was.
Ferrari boss puts down Hamilton’s complaints
Lewis Hamilton was hoping that his favourite F1 circuit at Silverstone would boost his flagging first year with the Ferrari team. The seven times world champion did achieve his best finish of the season to date, coming home in fourth place behind the jubilant Nico Hulkneberg.
In his post race interviews Lewis was critical of Ferrari’s strategy in the race together with capabilities of the SF-25 the Scuderia have delivered for him to drive. “We lost a lot of places through strategy. I’ not really sure how I was P4 and then came out [after a tyre change] P8. So that made life difficult.
“Then I stopped early hoping for a big undercut and Jeez it was so tricky. This car does not like those conditions at all. A big snap and wide in turn three, lost me a ton of time…. Lots of mistakes, it was chaos out there.”… READ MORE
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