“Early whispers” hint Red Bull could repeat brutal F1 driver shake-up

Red Bull may be planning a complete overhaul of their junior team Racing Bulls’ driver line-up for the 2026 F1 season, it has been claimed.

According to Sky Sports F1’s Simon Lazenby, “early whispers” have suggested Racing Bulls could have new drivers for 2026.

Speaking on the latest episode of the Sky F1 podcast, Lazenby said: “I get the feeling that the early whispers are that you might get two new drivers in Racing Bulls next year.”

Racing Bulls have yet to announce their F1 driver line-up for 2026.

Isack Hadjar is expected to be promoted to Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen. 

The futures of Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson remain unclear.

Tsunoda has been poor since replacing Lawson at Red Bull. 

His wealth of experience in F1 - making his debut with AlphaTauri (now Racing Bulls) in 2021 - means he doesn’t fit the profile of a driver for Red Bull’s junior team anymore.

Lawson has shown flashes of pace since returning to Racing Bulls.

However, he has proved incapable of being Verstappen’s teammate in a top team. 

More importantly, Lawson has been out-classed by rookie teammate Hadjar throughout this year.

As a result, Red Bull could opt to place two new junior drivers in their second team.

At the end of 2011, Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari were both dropped for the following season. 

They were ultimately replaced by Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne.

Three-time W Series champion Jamie Chadwick thinks it would make sense for Red Bull to make a double change as they’re looking “to try and find the next Verstappen”.

“I think they might, and if they do I think it’s very obvious that it’s because they are constantly looking to try and find the next Max Verstappen,” Chadwick said.

“They don’t want to find the next number two drivers, or just a driver that can be solid across the board. They want to find drivers that are the next superstars in Formula 1. If they, in my opinion, just keep the same line-up as they’ve got, then they know that those two drivers aren’t going to be Red Bull Racing drivers.

“They aren’t going to be drivers who are ever going to be within a tenth or so of Max, which is what they really need. Are they better off just trying something new, putting someone new in, a young driver, they might find [something] like they have with Isack Hadjar in the Racing Bulls.”

What about Alex Dunne?

Last week, it was announced Alex Dunne had parted ways with McLaren. 

Dunne had been part of their junior programme, participating in two FP1 sessions for the team earlier this year.

Helmut Marko has already confirmed Red Bull are in talks with Dunne.

Ted Kravitz has speculated that Dunne could make his F1 debut next year.

“There was a good story going around that Alex Dunne, having been released from his young driver programme at McLaren, is going to be picked up by Red Bull,” Kravitz said.

“Whether that’s going to mean that Arvid Lindblad takes another year in Formula 2 and that it’s Alex Dunne in Racing Bulls, and that it’s Isack Hadjar in Racing Bulls and that Yuki Tsunoda goes to Aston Martin as a reserve driver…”