{"id":882505,"date":"2026-09-04T02:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T02:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/882505\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T02:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T02:20:12","slug":"red-bull-hands-f1-test-to-protege-as-it-assesses-racing-bulls-driver-line-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/882505\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull hands F1 test to protege as it assesses Racing Bulls driver line-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Bull has given\u00a0Nikola Tsolov his first Formula 1 test as it continues to assess its options for its 2027 driver line-up at Racing Bulls<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The current Formula 2 championship leader completed 690km in a\u00a0VCARB 02 \u2013 Racing Bulls\u2019 2025 F1 car \u2013 at Imola on Thursday as part of the team\u2019s testing of previous cars (TPC) programme, which gave Red Bull a chance to assess its junior in grand prix machinery for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday was a really positive step for Nikola,\u201d Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane said. \u201cHe adapted quickly to the car and showed the composure you want to see from a driver taking on an F1 car for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe outing is part of the ongoing development plan the team runs for its junior drivers, giving them the tools, the mileage, and the environment to develop. We’ve seen time and again what this pathway can produce, and it\u2019s days like today that are part of how we keep building it.”<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Tsolov is aiming to become the first Bulgarian F1 driver and graduate from F2 over the winter, but faces stiff competition to dislodge either Liam Lawson<\/a> or Arvid Lindblad<\/a> from the Racing Bulls line-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst\u00a0TPC day in a Formula 1 car done, and I\u2019m super happy with how today went,\u201d Tsolov said. \u201cI really enjoyed every lap and it\u2019s difficult to put into words what it means to finally get this opportunity.<\/p>\n

\"Nikola <\/p>\n

Nikola Tsolov, Racing Bulls<\/p>\n

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool<\/p>\n

\u201cA massive thank you to VCARB and the Red Bull Junior Team for believing in me and giving me this opportunity. It\u2019s something I\u2019ve been working towards my whole life, so to finally experience it is pretty incredible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still don\u2019t think I\u2019ve fully comprehended what we achieved today, but I enjoyed every lap and hopefully I\u2019ll get the chance to add some more\u00a0kilometres soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Lawson was back in action for Red Bull at a\u00a0Pirelli tyre test, fresh from acting as stand-in for the injured Isack Hadjar<\/a> at the Dutch GP.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Lawson took on driver duties on Wednesday for Red Bull before handing over to reigning Super Formula champion and Racing Bulls test and reserve driver\u00a0Ayumu Iwasa on Thursday. The New Zealander completed 116 laps with a best lap time of 1m22.297s, while Iwasa put in 117 laps with a best lap time of 1m23.414s.<\/p>\n

Audi<\/a> and McLaren<\/a> joined Red Bull at the Pirelli tyre test at the 2020 Tuscan GP venue, with the British team running on both Wednesday and Thursday while Audi ran just on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri<\/a> completed 93 laps with a best time of 1m21.358s on Wednesday, with Dutch GP winner Lando Norris<\/a> posting 115 laps with a best time of 1m21.899s. Hulkenberg produced 121 laps for Audi on Thursday with a best lap time of 1m24.012s.<\/p>\n

The Pirelli tyre test focused on developing the three hardest compounds in the 2027 range.<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Bull has given\u00a0Nikola Tsolov his first Formula 1 test as it continues to assess its options for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,162177,3015,306195,2190,82],"class_list":["post-882505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-nikola-tsolov","tag-racing-bulls","tag-red-bull-hands-f1-test-to-protege-as-it-assesses-racing-bulls-driver-line-up","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}