“Early whispers” hint Red Bull could repeat brutal F1 driver shake-up

Pink Bull could also be planning an entire overhaul of their junior crew Racing Bulls’ driver line-up for the 2026 F1 season, it has been claimed.

In accordance with Sky Sports activities F1’s Simon Lazenby, “early whispers” have recommended Racing Bulls might have new drivers for 2026.

Talking on the newest episode of the Sky F1 podcast, Lazenby stated: “I get the sensation that the early whispers are that you simply would possibly get two new drivers in Racing Bulls subsequent yr.”

Racing Bulls have but to announce their F1 driver line-up for 2026.

Isack Hadjar is predicted to be promoted to Pink Bull alongside Max Verstappen. 

The futures of Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson stay unclear.

Tsunoda has been poor since changing Lawson at Pink Bull. 

His wealth of expertise in F1 – making his debut with AlphaTauri (now Racing Bulls) in 2021 – means he doesn’t match the profile of a driver for Pink Bull’s junior crew anymore.

Lawson has proven flashes of tempo since returning to Racing Bulls.

Nonetheless, he has proved incapable of being Verstappen’s teammate in a prime crew. 

Extra importantly, Lawson has been out-classed by rookie teammate Hadjar all through this yr.

Consequently, Pink Bull might decide to put two new junior drivers of their second crew.

On the finish of 2011, Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari have been each dropped for the next season. 

They have been finally changed by Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne.

Three-time W Sequence champion Jamie Chadwick thinks it might make sense for Pink Bull to make a double change as they’re trying “to try to discover the following Verstappen”.

“I feel they could, and in the event that they do I feel it’s very apparent that it’s as a result of they’re always seeking to try to discover the following Max Verstappen,” Chadwick stated.

“They don’t wish to discover the following quantity two drivers, or only a driver that may be stable throughout the board. They wish to discover drivers which are the following superstars in Formulation 1. In the event that they, for my part, simply preserve the identical line-up as they’ve bought, then they know that these two drivers aren’t going to be Pink Bull Racing drivers.

“They aren’t going to be drivers who’re ever going to be inside a tenth or so of Max, which is what they really want. Are they higher off simply making an attempt one thing new, placing somebody new in, a younger driver, they could discover [something] like they’ve with Isack Hadjar within the Racing Bulls.”

What about Alex Dunne?

Final week, it was introduced Alex Dunne had parted methods with McLaren. 

Dunne had been a part of their junior programme, taking part in two FP1 periods for the crew earlier this yr.

Helmut Marko has already confirmed Pink Bull are in talks with Dunne.

Ted Kravitz has speculated that Dunne might make his F1 debut subsequent yr.

“There was a superb story going round that Alex Dunne, having been launched from his younger driver programme at McLaren, goes to be picked up by Pink Bull,” Kravitz stated.

“Whether or not that’s going to imply that Arvid Lindblad takes one other yr in Formulation 2 and that it’s Alex Dunne in Racing Bulls, and that it’s Isack Hadjar in Racing Bulls and that Yuki Tsunoda goes to Aston Martin as a reserve driver…”