Red Bull in no rush to pick Max Verstappen's team-mate for F1 2026

Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies has confirmed his squad is “not in any hurry” to confirm Max Verstappen’s team-mate for the 2026 Formula 1 campaign.

The four-time world champion’s current team-mate Yuki Tsunoda has struggled since replacing Liam Lawson for round three of 2025 onwards, scoring just seven points leaving him 18th in the standings.

Tsunoda has therefore not been signed for next year yet, however Red Bull has long had trouble with its second seat as the Japanese driver, Lawson, Sergio Perez, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly have all struggled.

Red Bull is known to be quick on driver changes given its luxury position of having junior squad Racing Bulls also on the F1 grid.

But, having seen improvement from Tsunoda across the last two rounds including his best qualifying result of the year for Red Bull in Belgium with seventh, Mekies sees no reason for an immediate change.

“The reality for us is that we’re not in any hurry,” Mekies, who became Red Bull’s F1 boss after Christian Horner’s departure in July, told Canal+.

“We’re lucky to have Yuki in the car; we have Racing Bulls, which is working very well, and where we can also evaluate our young drivers.

Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing, Laurent Mekies, Racing Bulls Team Principal

Photo by: Kym Illman / Getty Images

“Yuki took a real step forward at Spa and also in Budapest in terms of his deficit to with Max. It wasn’t very noticeable because in Budapest we weren’t competitive overall.

“So we’ll see. Liam is making a lot of progress at Racing Bulls, Isack [Hadjar] has been doing an extraordinary job since the start of the season and keeps surprising us at every race.

“If you look at it from Red Bull’s point of view, it’s hard to see why we would be in a hurry to make this decision.”

Mekies confirmed Red Bull’s focus is therefore on the rest of the 2025 campaign, with the Austrian outfit fourth in the championship and 42 points off third-placed Mercedes.

“We understand the questions and the impatience surrounding this,” he added. “But for us, it’s first and foremost about trying to put our drivers in the best possible position for the remainder of the season and seeing where we are in a few months’ time.

“There are still 10 races to go. Then we’ll make the best possible decision with everyone involved.”

Photos from Dutch GP – Friday