Despite the 2025 silly season being fairly muted given most of the top seats are already secured by the drivers,. Red Bull are yet to settle on their two team driver lineups, with only Max Verstappen guaranteed a drive for next season.
As was the case with Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes, much is being made of Dr. Helmut Marko’s rising star academy driver Arvid Lindblad. The British -Swedish driver is currently in his first season in F2 having skipped the next ladder down in similar fashion to Max Verstappen when he joined Toro Rosso.
Yet Lindblad has struggled in F2 this year and currently sits in seventh place with 109 points, some 79 behind leader Leonardo Fornaroli. He does have a Sprint win to his name from Jeddah and was impressive in Barcelona claiming victory in the feature race.
Mekies unsure of Lindblad move
However, as Cadillac have demonstrated, 2026 is not the year to blood a rookie driver. The teams themselves are currently battling with the biggest regulation changes in F1 history as both chassis and power units will see significant changes in their specifications.
Dr. Helmut Marko has backed his young driver to make the step into Formula One next season, but new team boss Laurent Mekies is said to be unsure the move is wise. Juan Pablo Montoya whose son is racing alongside Lindblad this year in F2 believes its too early for the promotion.
The Colombian has been present a most of the F2 races this season and believes the Red Bull junior has made ‘many mistakes.’ The closest racing series to Formula One, is the Japanese Super Formula held in Asia. This was where Liam Lawson cut his teeth before making the move to F1 and Montoya believes a similar move should be made for Lindblad.
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Albon spurned by Red Bull
There’s been huge speculation that the Racing Bulls rookie driver Isak Hadjar is being lined up to replace Yuki Tsunoda in the Red Bull Racing team in 2026, yet there are those in the paddock who see that opportunity as a poisoned chalice suggesting the French-Algerian would benefit from another year in the Red Bull sister team.
One driver burned by the early promotion to Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen, was Alex Albon who mid-season in 2019 replaced Pierre Gasly after the Hungarian Grand Prix. Gasly returned to Torro Rosso where he remained for several years until Alpine came calling in 2023.
Albon completed one full season alongside Verstappen in 2020, before Red Bull jettisoned him late in the year, forcing him to sit out of F1 in 2021. He has since found a home at the Williams team and is leading the charge this year with sees then in fifth place.
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Albon dominates Sainz
A resurgent Williams team under the leadership of James Vowles have scored more points in 2025 than the four previous seasons combined. And despite the headline move of Carlos Sainz to the Grove based outfit, it is Albon who has racked up the Lion’s share of the points.
Despite Sainz headlining podium last tine out in Baku, in all on track sessions where both drivers have been classified it is Albon who leads the way 19-13. Prior to the Spaniard’s redemption in Azerbaijan, Albon led the charge for the team with 70 points to Carlos’ 16.
Rumours have emerged that Red Bull are looking to re-recruit Alex Albon for 2026. The majority shareholder in the energy drinks empire, Chalerm Yoovidya, is said to be pushing hard to bring his countryman back to Milton Keynes.
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Red Bull fail to deny Albon approach
F1-insider now reports they have made enquiries over how true the rumours are and described the response from a Red Bull source as “rather evasive.”
“A decision on who will drive alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing in 2026 hasn’t been made, nor has a decision on who will get the two cockpits at Racing Bulls,” reveals the report.”
A more usual response from Red Bull would have been to deny the rumours although their PR and media division has been switched to the parent company in Austria following the departure off Christian Horner.
Albon was mooted as a potential replacement for Sergio Pérez last season but James Vowles quickly moved to give him a contract which runs to the end of 2027. However, such is the wealth of the Thai businessman that motorsport Italy claim he is prepared to pay Williams a substantial amount to activate a release clause in his contract.
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Red Bull’s intentions unclear
With Williams now resurgent and Albon sitting eighth in the driver standings, its unclear wither the Thai-British racer would welcome the opportunity to return to his former team. Verstappen has proven to be unmatchable by all team mates bar Daniel Ricciardo, who defeated the Dutch driver in two of their three seasons together.
Italian F1 journalist Roberto Chinchero believes Albon would only move from Williams were he to be offered a drive with the Red Bull team. “We need to see what the real intentions of Red Bull are, which has four seats, but only two certainties at the moment, which are Verstappen and Hadjar,” said Chinchero.
“The other two seats are still completely up for grabs, it’s still an open game because there’s Lawson involved, there’s Tsunoda involved, there’s Lindblad involved and maybe there’s also Albon involved, who would clearly only move for a Red Bull seat. I [don’t] think Albon wants to go to Racing Bulls,” he added.
Albon is certainly a far better driver than when he last went up against the world champion and with huge regulation changes coming in 2026, the current characteristics of the tricky to drive RB21 will be gone.
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Lawson definitely deserves another year at Racing Bulls. Doohan also desereves another chance, but I don’t expect he’ll get one.
When will people bother to stop spreading the same old fake claim about Albon for good?
Red Bull isn’t known to give second chances in their main team to demoted or sacked drivers, so he won’t return any more than Gasly, Kvyat, or Perez.
Tsunoda, of course, wouldn’t get another chance either if he were to lose his drive, given the GP amount he’ll have done in the main team once the season is over, not to mention Albon will still have a higher amount than not only him, but also Gasly & Lawson.
Lawson did only two before losing his drive, so if he doesn’t have a chance, neither does anyone else.
Recycling the same claim about Albon over & over again is pointless, as if the situation would be any different than on the previous such occasion or the one before that, etc.
If Red Bull truly desired him, even for external factors, i.e., the Thai aspect, he wouldn’t have lost his drive in the first place, regardless of performance level, so these repetitive claims couldn’t be more false without foundation.
JP Montoya may think that Lindblad isn’t ready, although he clearly forgot one thing, which is that Super Formula isn’t an option for the Red Bull organization anymore because they don’t sponsor a team anymore nor will they be Honda-powered beyond this season’s end anymore, & for that matter, Lindblad doesn’t have personal affiliation with either Honda or Toyota, so the act of arranging a drive in that series with a team has stopped being an option for them.
For reference, only Aston Martin can do so with their upcoming Honda partnership & so could Haas via their technical partnership with Toyota if they had their ‘own’ drivers.
Therefore, F2 is Lindblad’s only other series option for next year, but he’d still benefit from continuing in that series for a second campaign.
Back to the main topic, since people have been hell-bent to push for an Albon return, which won’t happen anyway, they should equally be willing to push for a Gasly, Perez, or even Kvyat return while at it for consistency’s sake.
Claiming basically the same thing every now & then became old some time ago & therefore, reading about it over & over again is annoying.