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Isack Hadjar joins Max Verstappen at Red Bull for 2026, while Arvid Lindblad debuts with Racing Bulls alongside Liam Lawson in a major F1 driver reshuffle.
Isack Hadjar couldn’t finish the race at the Qatar Grand Prix (Picture credit: AP)
Star French Formula 1 driver Isack Hadjar is all set to drive alongside Max Verstappen in the 2026 season, with British-Swedish driver Arvid Lindblad handed a debut by Red Bull for next season. The latter is expected to drive for Red Bull’s sister team Racing Bulls.
Lindblad, born to a Swedish father and an Indian mother, will join New Zealander Liam Lawson as his teammate at Red Bull’s second team, Racing Bulls.
The reshuffle of the team’s driver line-up means Japanese racer Yuki Tsunoda will lose his seat on the grid after five seasons. Red Bull announced that he will be their test and reserve driver next year.
ありがとう、ユウキ🫶Thank you, Yuki, for your commitment and hard work this season. We’ll keep pushing for a strong weekend in Abu Dhabi and look forward to working with you as our Test and Reserve Driver for 2026. pic.twitter.com/ohQIRHLCDf
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) December 2, 2025
Hadjar, 21, will join Verstappen as his teammate after a stellar rookie season at Racing Bulls, highlighted by a brilliant podium finish at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Lindblad will be one of six British drivers on the 2026 grid, alongside Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, McLaren’s Lando Norris, Mercedes’ George Russell, Haas’ Oliver Bearman and Williams’ Alex Albon, who races under the Thai flag but was born and raised in Britain.
Hadjar’s F1 debut got off to a rocky start when he spun out on the formation lap of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in wet conditions. Overwhelmed, he broke down in tears and was comforted by Hamilton’s father, Anthony, on the walk back to the Racing Bulls garage.
Since then, Hadjar has emerged as one of the season’s standout rookies, averaging a 10th-place grid position and outqualifying Lawson 22 times to five, with an average margin of 0.18 seconds.
Hadjar is 10th in the championship with one Grand Prix left in the season.
Lindblad, now 18, has been identified by Red Bull as a potential future star since the age of 12.
Speaking last year about Red Bull’s young driver program, motorsport adviser Helmut Marko described Lindblad as ‘promising’, lauding his ‘pure speed’.
Since last year, Red Bull has been preparing Lindblad for a potential F1 debut in 2026, designing a program this season to help him earn enough points to bag the F1 superlicence needed to race in Grand Prix events.
Click here to add News18 as your preferred news source on Google. December 02, 2025, 8:58 PM IST
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