Marko drops hint as Red Bull sets definitive driver deadline

Red Bull will decide its 2026 roster after the Mexican Grand Prix, giving Yuki Tsunoda, Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar two more races to stake their claim as Max Verstappen’s F1 2026 Red Bull teammate.

For Tsunoda and Lawson, it could be a final roll of the dice amidst speculation that Hadjar will partner Verstappen while neither Tsunoda nor Lawson are guaranteed a future at the second team, Racing Bulls.

Red Bull F1 2026 driver line-up: The wait continues

⦁ Out of four seats, only Max Verstappen is confirmed for F1 2026
⦁ Helmut Marko singles out Isack Hadjar for praise
⦁ Hadjar, Lawson and Tsunoda respond to Mexican GP deadline

The only organisation on the grid to own two Formula 1 teams, Red Bull still has three seats to fill for next season as Verstappen’s teammate has yet to be named, neither have the two Racing Bulls drivers.

The big prize is, of course, the second seat alongside Verstappen.

While it may be considered to be Formula 1’s poisoned chalice with five drivers trying, and failing, to match the Dutchman since Daniel Ricciardo’s exit after the 2018 season, it’s also one of the most coveted.

Podiums, race wins, World titles and the chance to test oneself against arguably the best driver on the Formula 1 grid is an opportunity no one in the sport would turn down.

But only one, unless Red Bull makes an in-season driver change as it did this year, will have the chance next season.

Red Bull has yet to decide who that will be.

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“We’ll make our decision after Mexico,” the team’s motorsport advisor Helmut Marko told Kleine Zeitung.

That’s almost two months earlier before last year’s December announcement when Red Bull announced Sergio Perez’s exit and that Lawson would replace him at Red Bull. That, however, lasted all of two race weekends before Tsunoda was brought in.

However, the Japanese driver himself has struggled with 17 points in 16 races. Sitting on 20 for the season, he’s a whopping 253 down on Verstappen.

In fact, he has fewer points than Lawson on 30 and Hadjar on 39. The latter even has a podium to his name having finished third at the Dutch Grand Prix, just seconds behind Verstappen.

Marko admits he’s impressed with the driver’s performance.

“Isack has established himself and is currently enjoying his situation,” he said. “He’s achieved incredible things.”

But that doesn’t mean Tsunoda is out of the mix, with the 82-year-old saying Red Bull’s upgrades have “responded more to him, which has brought some success. He knows that he still needs results now.”

Red Bull hopefuls respond to two-race deadline

Hadjar was quizzed on Marko’s praise when he sat down with the media, including PlanetF1.com, in the build-up to the United States Grand Prix.

“I didn’t know that!” he said when told of Marko’s Mexican GP deadline.

“Honestly, it doesn’t change my approach at all. I’ve been saying it a million times.

“Maybe [there’s] a lot of talking, but when you’re trapped in the car and I drive, I really don’t think about something else than just doing the best I can do.”

As for Lawson, he reckons while it may be a two-race deadline, the next two races as no less important than the all the previous races in the season as they all play a part in Red Bull’s perspective of a driver.

“It’s as important as any other weekend, honestly,” Lawson said of the race in Austin.

“The sport moves very fast. As much as you have good race weekends, I think people in F1 have very short memories.

“It’s about trying to keep that consistency across the board. They [the next two weekends] are important, but so is every weekend in F1.”

Red Bull’s Mexican deadline was also put to Tsunoda, who reckons if he can just nail his qualifying pace, he will be up at the front as he’s already improved his race-pace.

“I think I’ve shown good amount of progress,” he said. “If that’s is enough, I don’t know, I don’t know what kind of references he’s setting.

“But I think at least I’m showing some progress there, and especially long run amount of progress I’ve done the step

“And I almost flipped the flip the situation upside down with that especially long run pace. So I think that’s really positive now.

“Now it’s more struggling short run last two races. But at least it’s good that as soon as I am able to put it all together, the short run, I think I can have a good result. The long run pace is there. It just automatically to put it all together all weekend.”

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock

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