Red Bull announcement imminent: Max Verstappen teammate chosen

Red Bull’s two teams will confirm their driver line-ups for the F1 2026 season on Tuesday, and one of the current squad is expected to lose out.

According to team boss Laurent Mekies, the final pieces of the F1 2026 puzzle will fall into place on Tuesday as Red Bull is set to confirm its intended line-ups for both of its teams.

Yuki Tsunoda expected to lose Red Bull seat

At Red Bull Racing, Max Verstappen will continue to lead the organisation’s charge, with the Dutch driver now synonymous with the Milton Keynes-based squad 10 years on from his debut with the team.

The identity of his teammate has been a major topic of conversation in recent months, with the main question being whether the experienced Yuki Tsunoda could improve enough to impress Red Bull to keep him alongside the Dutch driver for another season.

However, sources have indicated to PlanetF1.com that this is unlikely to be the case, with the Japanese driver expected to lose out in the reshuffle following a season in which he has failed to contribute many points to Red Bull’s Constructors’ Championship points tally.

Tsunoda has also struggled to aid Verstappen in his title quest, due to being unable to wrestle the RB21 close to the frontrunning drivers, although did manage to make an impression in last weekend’s Sprint race by helping ease Verstappen up to fourth from sixth on the grid.

With Tsunoda expected to be losing his Red Bull Racing seat, the likely benefactor is understood to be Isack Hadjar.

The French driver, in his rookie season, has emerged as something of a star, scoring 51 points en route to his current 10th-place position. He also scored his maiden podium in the Dutch Grand Prix, finishing third.

It was after this weekend that some sources suggested Hadjar was initially informed of a unilateral decision made by Helmut Marko to move him into the senior team.

However, with a shift in management ethos to ensure the involvement of Oliver Mintzlaff and Laurent Mekies in the decision-making process, Hadjar is believed to have had to wait until far more recently to have that promotion definitely signed off on.

Marko’s enthusiasm for Hadjar remains unchecked, saying in September that his young charge is “a funny guy who never blames the car, but always only himself.”

In an interview with Austria’s Kleine Zeitung, Marko said, “Also, he doesn’t make any mistakes and that’s really surprising for a new driver.

He improves on every track and is fully involved after a few laps, regardless of whether he has driven there before. That’s a very fast one who comes.

“He certainly has this mental strength to be able to hold his own against Verstappen.”

Over the Qatar Grand Prix weekend, when Tsunoda and Hadjar were asked for comment on their understanding of the Red Bull decision-making process, Tsunoda denied that any decision had been made.

In contrast, Hadjar, unable to keep a smile from his face, confirmed a decision on his future had been made and that he has received an indication as to where that lies.

Tsunoda, having spent the first four years of his F1 career with Red Bull’s second team, initially at AlphaTauri before its rebrand into Racing Bulls, is not expected to drop back to the Faenza-based squad and to leave the racing driver line-up entirely.

The brutal world of Formula 1:

👉 Revealed: The shortest F1 careers this century in the brutal world of Formula 1

👉 The ten greatest mid-season F1 driver swaps of the 21st century

Arvid Lindblad set for Racing Bulls promotion

With Hadjar’s likely promotion opening up a seat, sources have indicated that Red Bull’s junior driver prospect Arvid Lindblad will be confirmed as a Racing Bulls driver.

Currently occupying sixth in the Formula 2 championship, he became the series’ youngest race winner with victory in the Sprint in Jeddah, following that up with a win in the Feature race in Spain.

Lindblad joined the Red Bull programme in 2021, and, over the past year, has completed tests in the AlphaTauri AT04, as well as driving in practice for the senior team at the British and Mexico City Grands Prix.

At the more recent event, he finished sixth-fastest in Max Verstappen’s car.

With Helmut Marko having spoken glowingly about Lindblad even before his arrival in F2, with the British-Swedish driver having secured the necessary points for an FIA Super Licence as far back as January, the Austrian was thrilled with Lindblad’s performance in the Mexican FP1 session.

“Lindblad was even faster than Yuki with the same programme. Definitely a man for the future,” he said.

“It was very clear and he never got excited, he was calm, and the technical feedback had profound influence. It was a very, how should I say, exact definition.”

Alongside Lindblad, Liam Lawson is set to retain his seat as he completes his first full season in F1. The Kiwi driver earned a promotion to Red Bull alongside Verstappen for the 2025 season, following some impressive performances over two short stints as a replacement for Daniel Ricciardo in 2023 and ’24.

But Lawson struggled for performance in Bahrain and Australia and, with the team fearful of him having his confidence shattered, moved him back to Racing Bulls to give Tsunoda the seat.

Despite Lawson being in the less competitive car for the 21 weekends since that decision, the Kiwi has outscored Tsunoda with 38 points to 30.

Lawson could be seen in conversation with Marko at the front of the Red Bull hospitality unit on Sunday in Qatar, but confirmed on Sunday night that he had “no hints” yet as to what his future may be.

Having seemingly done enough to retain his seat for next season, Lawson’s growing confidence and experience make him a valuable yardstick against which to measure Lindblad, whilst also showing enough potential to improve into one of the midfield’s leading lights.

While the line-ups of Verstappen/Hadjar and Lawson/Lindblad are expected to be confirmed by the two Red Bull teams on Tuesday, other permutations of the same line-up, aside from Verstappen’s position, are possible, with the next most likely being a continuation of the status quo.

There is also the small chance of a surprise promotion for Ayumu Iwasa, the recently-crowned Super Formula Champion, who has been part of the Red Bull junior programme through his Honda links. Having tested for Racing Bulls this year in two TPC outings, he has also driven for both Red Bull teams for single free practice session outings in Bahrain and Mexico.

One name that won’t appear as a potential surprise after late-summer rumours linked him with Red Bull is Alex Dunne, with the Irish driver said to have fallen out of possible contention due to uncertainty over his status of his Super Licence. However, it’s understood conversations between the two sides remain open.

Read Next: Red Bull boss raises McLaren ‘psychological effect’ of Max Verstappen pressure in title race