Hadjar to Red Bull in 2026 is now a formality, while Lindblad will partner Lawson at Racing Bulls and Tsunoda will not have a seat. The official announcement is expected tomorrow.
Only the official announcement, expected tomorrow, is missing, but the deal is done: Isack Hadjar will be Max Verstappen’s new teammate at Red Bull in 2026. Racing Bulls has also finalized its line-up for next season: Liam Lawson is confirmed, and Arvid Lindblad is promoted from Formula 2. Therefore, there is no seat for Yuki Tsunoda, who goes from being in the Red Bull orbit to having no place for next year. This was confirmed by Erik Van Haren, a highly reliable Dutch journalist within the Red Bull sphere, via a post on X.
The arduous task of partnering Verstappen will therefore fall to Hadjar, with the goal of doing better than his last two predecessors in the seat: Lawson lasted only two races, while Tsunoda will be dropped after 22 rounds. The Racing Bulls rookie is thus rewarded for his excellent debut season, which sees him in the top 10 in the drivers’ standings with 51 points and a podium finish achieved at Zandvoort.
There is also good news for Lawson, who, after the cold shower of the demotion at the start of the year, is continuing to impress at Racing Bulls, with five points finishes in the last eleven races. The 2002-born driver will mentor the 2007-born Lindblad, a talent from the Red Bull Junior Team currently sitting sixth in Formula 2 in his rookie season.
Tsunoda will find himself without a seat after five years in Formula 1. His performance at Red Bull was decisive, with only 10 points finishes between Sprints and Grands Prix and 15th place in the drivers’ standings, behind both Racing Bulls. The gap to his teammate Verstappen also weighs heavily; Verstappen is fighting for the title with seven wins this season and was beaten by the Japanese driver only once in qualifying, precisely during the last weekend in Qatar.
READ ALSO: Norris, Piastri, and the Great Verstappen Nightmare: All the Combinations Ahead of the Abu Dhabi GP
The team led by Laurent Mekies will thus aim to fight for the Constructors’ Championship again, which currently sees them in third place, 33 points behind second-place Mercedes and 374 points behind champion McLaren. Who knows if Hadjar will manage to break the curse of the second Red Bull driver or if his will only be the latest in a long list of careers ruined by Milton Keynes.
Photo: Red Bull Content Pool
