Hadjar promoted and British teenager Lindblad gets F1 drive

Red Bull will promote Frenchman Isack Hadjar to their senior team and hand 18-year-old Briton Arvid Lindblad a debut Formula 1 season in 2026.

Lindblad, who has a Swedish father and a mother of Indian descent, will be team-mate to New Zealander Liam Lawson at second team Racing Bulls.

The shuffling of Red Bull’s driver line-up sees Japanese Yuki Tsunoda lose his seat on the grid after five seasons.

Hadjar, 21, will become four-time champion Max Verstappen’s team-mate after an impressive rookie season at Racing Bulls, which included an outstanding podium finish at the Dutch Grand Prix.

Lindblad joins five other drivers with British nationality on the grid next year – Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, McLaren’s Lando Norris, Mercedes’ George Russell, Oliver Bearman of Haas and Williams driver Alex Albon, who races under the Thai flag but was born and raised in Britain.

Lindblad said it was a “proud moment”, adding: “2026 will be a big challenge and I know there’s a lot to learn, but I’m ready to work closely with the team and rise to it. I can’t wait to get started.”

Lindblad has been marked out as a potential future star by Red Bull since he was 12 years old.

Discussing the company’s young driver programme, Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko said last year that Lindblad “looks really promising”, praising his “pure speed”.

Red Bull have been working since last year to ready Lindblad for a potential F1 debut in 2026. They planned a programme for this season that would earn him enough points to secure an F1 ‘superlicence’, which is needed to race in grands prix.

He has completed two runs in F1 practice sessions, at the British and Mexico City Grands Prix.

Marko said: “In one of the Formula 3 races [at Silverstone in 2024], he overtook, in one lap, I don’t know, 10 or 14 other drivers. He won the race from being last in these tricky conditions, wet, dry and so on.

“If I look back, I met him first in Portimao (in Portugal). Portimao have a very attractive go-kart circuit and we had a Formula 1 race and I met him and his father. And it was Arvid who was leading the conversation, with 12 years (of age) or so. So that also was something which is not normal.

“But he had a clear vision and a clear way how to achieve it. And since then he moved steadily forward.”

Lindblad has won two races in F2 this year and is sixth in the championship heading into the final round in Abu Dhabi this weekend.

He was born and grew up in Virginia Water in Surrey and is managed by Britain’s Formula E world champion Oliver Rowland.

Hadjar’s F1 career started on a low note when he spun out of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in the wet on the formation lap. He broke down in tears and was consoled by Hamilton’s father Anthony on his walk back to the Racing Bulls garage.

But since then he has been one of the stand-out rookies this season, with an average grid position of 10th and beating team-mate Liam Lawson in qualifying 22 times to five at an average advantage of 0.186 seconds.

Hadjar lies 10th in the championship with one grand prix remaining this season.

But he faces a stiff challenge against Verstappen, who has comprehensively outperformed all his team-mates since Daniel Ricciardo left Red Bull at the end of 2018.

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies said: “Isack has displayed great maturity and proved to be a quick learner. Most importantly, he has demonstrated the raw speed that is the number one requirement in this sport.

“We believe Isack can thrive alongside Max and produce the magic on track.”

Hadjar described it as “an awesome move” and said he felt “ready”.

For the seat alongside Lindblad at Racing Bulls, Red Bull have preferred Lawson over Tsunoda.

Lawson started 2025 with Red Bull but was demoted to the junior team in a swap with Tsunoda after just two races. He struggled badly alongside Verstappen, to the extent that Red Bull felt they had no choice but to remove him from the seat.

But he has settled back into F1 at Racing Bulls and some strong performances – including a fifth place in Azerbaijan and sixth in Austria – have convinced Red Bull he deserves more time.

He has completed 34 starts across three years but will be embarking on his second full season in 2026.

Tsunoda, meanwhile, has been ejected from an F1 race seat after a disappointing season alongside Verstappen.

The 25-year-old had long felt he merited a chance at the main Red Bull team but he has not been able to justify his position.

His best result is a sixth place at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and he has scored only 7% of Red Bull’s points in the constructors’ championship.

He has out-qualified Verstappen only once – in the Qatar sprint last weekend – and has an average deficit of 0.644secs to the Dutchman over the season, by far the largest margin between team-mates on the grid.

Verstappen has won seven races and is in contention for the world championship with McLaren drivers Norris and Oscar Piastri heading to Abu Dhabi.

There is also no place on the Red Bull driver programme for Ireland’s Alex Dunne.

The 20-year-old split with McLaren in September and had been of interest to Red Bull.

However, while Marko is said to have wanted to take on Dunne, other senior members of Red Bull did not, and Mekies has told BBC Sport that Dunne is not part of their plans.

Dunne will continue in F2 next season with his current team Rodin and is in talks with Alpine about joining their driver development programme.