Racing Bulls is known for bringing promising young drivers into Formula 1, but now the team faces a difficult decision for one of its 2027 seats.

Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel, Carlos Sainz, and Daniel Ricciardo are just a few of the drivers whose careers have come through Red Bull Racing’s sister team, formerly known as Toro Rosso, AlphaTauri, and RB, before adopting the Racing Bulls name in 2025. The team’s primary purpose is to promote youngsters from Red Bull’s Junior Academy with a view to supplying the main team with competitive drivers in the future.

Isack Hadjar is the latest example of a driver who debuted with Racing Bulls before earning a promotion to Red Bull. His strong performances, which include two podiums this season, earned him an extension for 2027. With no seats available at Red Bull, Racing Bulls has a tough decision to make for one of its seats.

Arvid Lindblad is expected to be locked in for next year, with the 19-year-old British driver showing plenty of potential during his rookie campaign. He has earned 38 points with four races still to go this season, and he came close to improving this to 44 before a collision with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in Mexico. He currently ranks 11th in the Drivers’ Championship and is just four points behind former Red Bull driver Pierre Gasly in 10th.

While it has not been officially confirmed yet, he will likely continue his development with Racing Bulls, with hopes that he can grow and demonstrate greater consistency as he gains more experience. For his teammate, however, it is not yet clear whether or not he will remain with the team or will need to look for another opportunity elsewhere.

Liam Lawson On The Verge

Liam Lawson has had the best season of his Formula 1 career in 2026. He currently ranks ninth in the standings on 83 points, with 14 of those points coming in an impressive three-race spell with Red Bull Racing while Hadjar recovered from a wrist injury.

He has consistently finished in the points, coming up empty-handed in only four race finishes. His worst finish came in Monza with Red Bull, where he finished P14 after taking engine penalties and starting at the back of the grid. He has had some impressive drives this year and even claimed P7 after starting from the pit lane at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

All of this has come after what can be best described as a stop-start beginning to his career, with brief stints in 2023 and 2024 coming before a full-time drive in 2025. Unfortunately, he started 2025 with Red Bull and struggled greatly before being demoted back to the sister team. He recovered from the difficult start to earn 38 points in 2025, but Hadjar outperformed him and earned his promotion.

2026 has seen a different side of Lawson, who has been the biggest contributor to the team’s current fifth-place ranking in the Constructors’ Championship. If Racing Bulls finish the season fifth, it would be the best result in the team’s history dating back to its debut as Toro Rosso in 2006. Despite such an impressive achievement and a strong season from Lawson, the 24-year-old has recently commented to reporters that his future with the team is still not secured.

“There’s definitely no assurance at the moment. It’s a tough sport. Right now, I don’t know what else to say, really,” he told Sky Sports F1.

Lawson is the highest-ranked driver of the midfield teams, with only the Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, and McLaren drivers ahead of him in the standings. So, why is his place at Racing Bulls uncertain?

Nikola Tsolov In The Frame

Racing Bulls’ ethos of promoting young drivers and giving them an opportunity in Formula 1 is the main reason. The team is currently weighing up which driver pairing would be best for the team and Red Bull as a whole in the long term. The reason for this is 19-year-old Nikola Tsolov.

The Bulgarian currently drives for Campos Racing in Formula 2, and he is ranked second in the standings with just two more race weekends remaining in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. He has four feature race wins and two sprint wins this season, more than any other driver in F2, and is just seven points behind Rafael Câmara for the championship lead.

He led the standings earlier in the season, but three retirements over the past four race weekends have seen Câmara take the lead. A P2 finish in Baku has kept Tsolov within touching distance of the 21-year-old Brazilian, who will make his Formula 1 debut with Haas this weekend, and he still has a chance at winning the title as a rookie if he can put in positive results in the final two race weekends.

Tsolov would be ineligible to drive in Formula 2 in 2027 if he wins the championship, which forces the Red Bull organization into a difficult situation. It rates him very highly and would like to see him in Formula 1.

He made his first Formula 1 appearance in Mexico, driving Lawson’s car in Free Practice 1, where he finished P12 and just 0.126 seconds behind Lindblad. While there were 10 rookies in FP1 in Mexico, Tsolov was the third-fastest behind Mercedes’ Frederik Vesti and Red Bull’s Ayumu Iwasa. His performances on and off the track have impressed Racing Bulls, which has raised the difficult question of which direction the team takes.

If Racing Bulls are convinced of Tsolov’s potential, then he could be placed alongside Arvid Lindblad, and the pair would become direct comparables for the main team to assess. If one of them shows more in the coming years, it could give them a strong case for promotion if Verstappen leaves after his contract expires in 2030, or if Hadjar’s performances alongside him decline or stagnate.

Promoting Tsolov would mean parting ways with Lawson, who could be an interesting candidate for another team’s 2028 seat, but that would sideline him for 2027, as Cadillac is the only team that could have a genuine opportunity if it does officially part ways with Valtteri Bottas.

If, however, Racing Bulls decides that keeping Lawson around for at least another year would be in the team’s best interests, then Tsolov would have to find alternatives.

One solution could be that he takes over the reserve driver role for both teams, giving him plenty of simulator work as well as some Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) outings to build up his experience in Formula 1 machinery. Another could be for him to drive in a different series, with reports of a potential drive in Super Formula emerging a couple of months ago.

This would allow Red Bull to assess Lindblad next to Lawson for another season, while ensuring Tsolov continues to race competitively and fulfill important work behind the scenes in preparation for an opportunity in Formula 1 in the future.

While a decision does not look to be imminent, clarity on the situation should come before the end of the season.