Who makes most sense as Max Verstappen’s F1 2026 teammate?

Red Bull must start considering who will slot in alongside Max Verstappen for F1 2026, but who is the favourite for the second seat?

Max Verstappen firming up his commitment to Red Bull for F1 2026 means the Milton Keynes-based squad only has one seat left to worry about for next year, but no particular clarity on who might be best suited to slot in.

Red Bull: Liam Lawson vs. Isack Hadjar vs. Yuki Tsunoda

Having succeeded Christian Horner as team boss of Red Bull, one of the first big decisions that Laurent Mekies must make over the next few months is to choose a teammate for Verstappen.

This is a trickier job than might appear, with Red Bull having struggled to find someone able to perform at their best in the second car, whether that be for reasons of comfort behind the wheel in an unusual car, feeling at ease within a front-running team environment, or simply mental fortitude alongside the generational talent that is the relentlessly consistent and imperious Verstappen.

F1 2025 has indicated that Verstappen’s teammate of recent years, Sergio Perez, has been somewhat vindicated after struggles for pace and consistency last year, as the RB21 circulated at the back in the hands of rookie driver Liam Lawson early this year, and not much further forward in the hands of the far more experienced Yuki Tsunoda.

It’s Tsunoda who faces the most scrutiny at this point, given his long time within the stable at Racing Bulls/AlphaTauri since stepping up to F1 in 2021. Over the years, Tsunoda has had a rocky time, emerging from a troubled first year to create a reputation for himself of being fast, consistent, and reliable by the end of 2024.

Given the nod to step up to Red Bull after the first two races this year, due to the extent of Lawson’s struggles, Tsunoda is perhaps the best indication of just how much of a challenge the second Red Bull seat is for drivers to adjust to.

For example, Tsunoda qualified fifth at the season opener in Australia, driving the Racing Bulls, followed by sixth in the Chinese Sprint, and ninth for the Grand Prix. Stepping into the Red Bull, one might imagine his results would improve in a car that’s clearly quicker but, instead, the Japanese driver has only made it into Q3 on three occasions across 12 weekends, and has been knocked out in Q1 on five occasions.

He’s been open about his struggles to find confidence with the RB21, but the signs are there that he is, slowly but surely, closing the gap in pace to Verstappen, and Mekies highlighted this after the Hungarian weekend.

“Yuki qualified, probably for the first time in his career, two tenths from Max in the first run in Q1, a tenth and a half from Max in the second run of Q1, and Max was not exactly having fun on track,” he said.

“So it’s actually a strong sample, maybe his best sample so far, and after also some progression in Spa, I think it’s something he and his engineering team have done a very good job at.”

Tsunoda is no different from Hadjar and Lawson in that all three have worked closely with Mekies, but where Tsunoda could benefit from the promotion of Mekies is that the French engineer might be better placed to see why he is struggling so much relative to Verstappen, having experience of overseeing him at Racing Bulls and also coming from an engineering background to a greater extent than Horner.

“That’s positive, and it’s showing that I’m making progress. On short runs, especially, it’s quite clear that I’m closing the gap on Max,” Tsunoda said on Sunday in Hungary.

“So I’ll just keep what I’m doing. On paper, it doesn’t look good, but at the same time, I think what I’m doing so far is positive.”

Like most of the drivers on the grid who have jumped into new cars, against teammates more acclimatised to the idiosyncrasies of their respective machinery, Tsunoda has struggled overall, but the upward trend is coming at a good point for him as he still has enough time to showcase his talents to Mekies across the remaining 10 race weekends.

Where Tsunoda’s position does become weaker is the fact that he has struggled so much, while he also loses support from Honda as the Japanese manufacturer parts ways with the Red Bull organisation to return as an official engine supplier to Aston Martin.

While Honda has already made it clear that Tsunoda must stand on his own two feet anyway, the Japanese driver won’t have a long-term partner, adding some weight to the argument to keep him.

Barring a huge uptick in performance from Tsunoda, the most likely candidate to step into the Red Bull is thus Isack Hadjar.

The French driver has been one of the revelations of the season, despite a shaky start, after crashing on the formation lap in Australia. He’s scored 22 points so far this year across multiple points finishes, and it’s no particular surprise to see him make Q3 – something he’s achieved on eight occasions, while he’s the only driver outside of the top four teams to not have had a Q1 exit so far this year.

What makes Hadjar stand out is that, even when he should be satisfied, the true extent of how hard he is on himself is evident in how morose he can be, even when results are strong. For instance, in Hungary, he was open about the fact “it’s rare” he’s happy with himself, and this was proven by his very obvious frustration at being beaten by Lawson in qualifying, ninth versus 10th, despite having made Q3 once again.

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It’s indicative of the standards he holds himself up against, and this pragmatic approach was evident when he spoke to the media, including PlanetF1.com, in Budapest about his hopes for the future.

“You know how fast it goes around here; it’s too soon [to think about],” he said.

“I don’t really care, because I feel very safe and I’m happy. I’m just happy driving an F1 car.”

Evaluating the first half of the season, in which many have proposed him as the rookie of the year, he said, “I think my raw speed and talent have always been there. I didn’t learn how to drive faster in the last three seasons. It’s not true. My F2 season with HiTech was an absolute nightmare, and I had this moment where I thought I’m never going to make it to F1, but thankfully, I had very strong support from Helmut [Marko].

“He kept believing, and he gave me a second chance, which I took. So, as well as mental strength, obviously, because you need to not give up in those moments, you need strong people around and people who trust in you. I had really good people around me who believed in me. And that’s how I got back up, basically.”

Marko may be a notoriously hard taskmaster, but even the Austrian appears to have a soft spot for Hadjar.

“He’s sensational,” Marko said of the young French driver.

“He drives well on all tracks, regardless of whether he’s familiar with them or not. His Formula 1 debut has so far exceeded our expectations. He certainly has a great future ahead of him.”

With Marko likely to play a decisive part in deciding Verstappen’s teammate for next year, the mutual respect between Hadjar and the Red Bull director is likely to play a big part in what happens next – not that Hadjar is thinking too much about it at present.

“When I am on top of it and not making any mistakes, then, yeah, I can think,” he said, when asked by PlanetF1.com if he’s started thinking about his future. When pushed on whether he’s eyeing up a Red Bull dream, he replied, “I’m dreaming of scoring in the points!”

It would thus appear that, of the incumbent Red Bull drivers already in F1, Liam Lawson is least likely to get the call-up to return to the senior team.

As a rookie driver, his promotion to step up beside Verstappen was perhaps a step too much, too soon, as he appeared overcome by the weight of expectation whilst also struggling for pace across the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix.

But the Kiwi hasn’t ruled out a possible return, having regained his form at Racing Bulls in a car that he also had to acclimatise to after spending the pre-season testing the RB21.

Asked by PlanetF1.com whether he has a return to the senior team in mind as he races through the second half of this season, Lawson replied, “Honestly, in terms of my future, it’s been so busy this year that I’m not really thinking about it.

“I’m focused on having some good races. Obviously, we’ve had some recently, but three of them aren’t enough over 12 races, or however many it’s been.

“So we need to do more of this, and then we’ll see.”

Identifying qualifying as an area of weakness he wishes to improve throughout the remainder of the season, he said, “What was probably a rocky start has now stabilised and we’re in a better place.

“The speed’s been there most of the year, and it’s nice that we’re finally able to get a couple of good results. As a whole, we need to be doing that more.

“To have two or three of those races over the first half of the season is not enough. Going forward into the second half of the year, we’re trying to replicate this more.

“Right now, with how close it is, it’s the little things that make a big difference. Trying to extract everything each weekend.”

Lawson has bounced back well from a character-building moment in his career.

Finishing ahead of Verstappen in Hungary will obviously stand him in the reckoning when the time for a decision is made, and perhaps the extra experience – particularly of dealing with a humbling demotion after landing what should have been a dream drive – means he’s the ideal candidate to step up beside the Dutch driver next season.

Of course, all three need to worry about the lurking presence of the highly-rated Arvid Lindblad, but the most likely path of travel for the British-Swedish driver will be for the rookie to slot in at Racing Bulls if a decision is made to part ways with any of them.

With Marko a vocal fan of Lindblad, it’s entirely possible that there may be some disagreement between Mekies and Marko on what path to take.

At this early stage in his tenure, it’s difficult to imagine Mekies winning such a debate, meaning it’s quite likely the Frenchman may have to part ways with a driver he has already worked closely with – the most likely of which, at this point, is Tsunoda, given that he is yet to show that he can pass muster in a front-running team.

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