Red Bull Racing and the sister team the Racing Bulls are the only F1 outfits yet to confirm their driver lineups for 2026. Dr. Helmut Marko stated in Austin that an announcement would be made following the Mexican Grand Prix.
Yet he was contradicted by Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies who stated the team were under no pressure to make a decision and would “tea hour time.” Given Yuki Tsunoda has contributed less to Red Bull than any other of Verstappen’s team mates, the expectations in the autumn were with Honda leaving for Aston Martin, he would be dropped as a driver from the Red Bull F1 family.
Paddock senior individuals are briefing this weekend that Isack Hadjar has been told he will be promoted alongside Verstappen for 2026.
Kravitz calls Red Bull driver lineups
Speaking on his notebook feature on Saturday, Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz gleefully declared: “I can save you the announcement that all these nice people on the socials are going to make next week that Isack Hadjar will be joining Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing”
“They’ve both been told. Yuki’s been told, Isack’s been told. Isack couldn’t contain his excitement when he came to us on Thursday. Yuki couldn’t contain his disappointment. We don’t know who’s going to be joining Liam Lawson at Racing Bulls.
“We think it’s probably going to be Arvid Lindblad, leaving Yuki Tsunoda out of Formula 1. But all will become clear next week, if I haven’t given it all away already,” Kravitz concluded.
Another senior F1 writer, Adam Cooper, now reports that Honda are making a last rich effort to save their Japanese driver’s F1 career. He argues that despite Honda leaving for Aston Martin, they hold sway over Red Bull for at least two more seasons due to the FIA’s ‘testing of previous cars’ (TPC) programme.
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F1 teams are not allowed to test with their current cars, but can blood new drivers in private tests under the FIA TPC programme. Cooper goes to great length to press this narrative home that Red Bull can’t deliver any TPC with their 2024/25 cars without the help of Honda – who are using this influence to demand Tsunoda is retained at the Racing Bulls.
He continued stating it will be Liam Lawson who makes way for the returning Japanese driver because Dr. Helmut Marko believes he has found the next Max Verstappen in F2 driver Arvid Lindblad. Lindblad has a scant junior education and at age 17 was thrown straight into the 2025 F3 championship.
Yet his early promise and a stellar drive in Silverstone has faded dramatically. Having challenged for the lead of the championship, the British-Swedish driver has dropped like a stone and now has almost half the points of the current leader Leo Fornaroli.
Cooper states Red Bull will need Honda’s co-operation to begin a TPC programme for Lindblad before the season starts in Barcelona in January testing. Yet including the post Abu Dhabi tyre test and the mandated two week shutdown of the F1 factories, this is nonsense give the number of tests possible could be counted on one hand.
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Further, the 2024/25 cars will be nothing like their successors in 2026, so the learning possible under TPC with such huge technical specifications regulations changes will be minimal.
Lindblad’s collapse in form during this season’s F2 campaign, make him a most unlikely prospect to be promoted to F1 in 2026. Not only would a rookie driver have to cope with the new challenges of F1 as it is, but also be expected to the learn the significant amount of energy management on the hoof, as the new regulations will require.
However, a new name has emerged who may be the next Racing Bull’s F1 driver with Ayumu Iwasa recently wining the Japanese Super Formula championship at the final round of the year. The Japanese championship is said to have the cars which are closest to the pace and aero specifications of F1 but few of the F1 team’s junior drivers sent to compete in Super Formula are successful.
The only driver in recent history to win the championship and make a solid F1 career is Pierre Gasly, also placed in the Japanese championship as a Red Bull academy racer.
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Yuki out qualifies Max
Back at Red Bull, Yuki Tsunoda had a promising start to the weekend in Qatar, he out qualified Max Verstappen for the first time in the Sprint, coming home one place behind his team mate after allowing him through to challenge Norris.
“I got a good start in the Sprint. I could have maybe taken more risks, but I wanted to keep the car safe. Max also got a good start, and as a team, we were able to make it work, and I could help Max out,” reported Yuki.
“I nearly lost out with the time penalty, but I felt like I had a strong Sprint, with good pace. I don’t understand what happened in Qualifying. We didn’t change much in the car, but I just didn’t have much grip and felt like I had lost the pace.”
The other thing in Tsunoda’s favour is that in Red Bull’s desperation to get Vestappen back into the 2025 title race, it has often been the case that Yuki has had to wait up to two race weekends for the upgrades the team having been prioritising for their world champion.
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Tsunoda backed heavily by Mekies
Following the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies was effusive with praise for his Japanese driver when speaking to the Talking Bull podcast. “He’s an incredible individual,” insisted Mekies. “He’s the most genuine, friendly, generous person. Yes, of course, he’s a friend. He’s the sort of guy that would, two or three weeks ago, he would drive 100km just to have dinner with you, even though we see each other every other weekend.
“I thought it was for us, but it may have been for the food, you’re right. He has a very unique trajectory in motorsport. He has that raw speed, he had that, I call it late progress on a fourth year, when drivers start to level a little bit, he had this huge season in 2024 with Racing Bulls. Then another amazing start in 2025, and then of course, he was now put into the exposure of a top team with the likes of Red Bull Racing,” concluded Mekies.
Given the race in Brazil was one of Tsunoda’s worst as he trailed home in P17, the timing of this vote of confidence seemed misplaced based upon performance, yet it can’t be dismissed and may be its the case that Red Bull politics are the thing which saves Yuki’s F1 career.
Hamilton’s desperate sounding plea to save his F1 career
The arrival of Lewis Hamilton in Maranello could not have been more fanfare, it was as though the reincarnation of Michael Schumacher was walking through the factory doors.
He was given a personal tour of the facilities by non other than Ferrari group president John Elkann, who the Italian media report was a key individual in the recruitment of the seven times world champion.
John Elkann is no motorsport buff and it seemed the mega deal done to bring Lewis to Ferrari was three years too late. Hamilton has been struggling since losing the 2021 drivers’ title race to Max Verstappen, beaten easily by his junior team mate George Russell at Mercedes…. READ MORE
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Zero relevance & Red Bull’s situation isn’t any different in principle from Aston Martin & Audi who’ll need to use Mercedes & Ferrari-powered cars for the time being, so as they won’t need a Mercedes-affiliated or Ferrari-affiliated driver to conduct TPC tests, neither will Red Bull, for that matter, so claiming otherwise is contradictory, nor does Honda have any sway anyway with the partnership ending, & neither Aston Martin nor Ford would probably be happy if Honda continued to provide technical help to Red Bull despite the exclusive & technical partnership, respectively.
All in all, the Honda aspect doesn’t have any relevance anymore & should Lindblad continue in F2, after all, Iwasa would ironically be a better fit as Lawson’s teammate than Tsunoda, given the relative career situations, not to mention he’s more ready to compete in F1 than Lindblad in comparison.
Ted at least said what he said based on reality & likelihood, not to mention the TPC aspect hasn’t been reported by any highly reliable publication or journalist, so zero foundation.