Did Red Bull make the correct decision with their drivers?

The Red Bull family revolving door has once again continued to spin. On Tuesday, Red Bull announced their 2026 F1 driver lineup.

Isack Hadjar’s stay at Visa Cash App Racing Bulls will only last one year, as he is set to earn a promotion to the main team.

The Frenchman’s deal is reported as a 1+1, with Red Bull holding the option to demote him to Racing Bulls if they choose.

Liam Lawson bounced back nicely after a disaster of a start to the season, and he will retain his ride with Racing Bulls.

Alongside him will be Arvid Lindblad.

Lindblad becomes the first driver born in 2007 to join the F1 grid after coming up through the Red Bull Drivers Academy.

While still very raw, the British driver has shown very strong pace in the feeder series. He has won races in both F2 and F3, only spending one year at each level. This means Yuki Tsunoda will be out of a seat for 2026.

It was announced that he will be the Red Bull test and reserve driver. This continues a consistent trend of Red Bull making quick decisions.

Going back to when they were Toro Rosso in 2010, the Red Bull second team has never gone two full years with the same lineup.

But this begs the question: was this the right decision? Hadjar has shown immense promise, but that RBR car is also not easy to drive.

Max Verstappen can squeeze results out of it, drivers like Charles Leclerc could squeeze results out of it, but is Hadjar ready?

Liam Lawson wasn’t, Yuki Tsunoda wasn’t, but is it worth the risk of harming Hadjar’s development to go for the high-ceiling driver now?

Only time will tell if it actually works, but I do think there is something to be said that having him in the main team during a major regulation change could be hard.

With Hadjar getting promoted, this was really the only real option for VCARB.

It simply would not make sense to send Tsunoda back down now, as five years is enough time to see who he really is.

Lawson’s fate might be sealed as Tsunoda’s role from the last four years, not good enough to get promoted, but good enough to be seen as the benchmark to see if new drivers can get promoted.

We will probably have more time to discuss Red Bull’s drivers next year, as they are always moving things around.

Edison Pellumbi is a first-year student studying broadcast journalism. To contact him, email him at ejp5889@psu.edu.