Lawson or Tsunoda: Who should Red Bull Racing make Verstappen's temporary teammate

GPblog has previously learned that Hadjar will likely miss the upcoming Grand Prix weekend due to a wrist injury. Red Bull is yet to decide who will be Verstappen's temporary teammate.

Similarly to the end of the 2024 season, the same question arises: who should Red Bull (temporarily) promote, Lawson or Tsunoda?

The New Zealander has a point to prove. Last year, he was replaced at Red Bull Racing after just two Grands Prix weekends. He then managed to retain his Racing Bulls seat and remain with the team this year as the experienced driver alongside rookie Arvid Lindblad.

For Red Bull, promoting Lawson would likely be a test of whether they made the right decision by keeping him on board as a full-time driver for 2026 and whether he could be considered a long-term option should they need to promote someone from within the team again.

For Lawson, a strong performance could further secure his place within the Red Bull family.

As for Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull already made its decision at the end of the 2025 season, when the team replaced him with Hadjar and allowed Lawson to keep his seat at Racing Bulls.

The advantage of promoting Tsunoda would be that Racing Bulls' line-up remains unchanged as they battle Alpine for fifth place in the constructors' standings, with the French team set to introduce an update package this weekend.

The Japanese driver also has more experience with the team during race weekends, but, of course, lacks competitive experience with the 2026 cars. He would have a single session to get up to speed as this is a Sprint weekend.

For Tsunoda, getting this chance would be important to show F1 teams what he is still capable of. As GPblog previously reported, he has not given up on his Formula 1 dream.