Mystery hovers around Max Verstappen’s future teammate for the 2026 season.
What line-up for Red Bull in 2026? Everything suggests that Isack Hadjar will join Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen next season. The French driver, currently with Racing Bulls, convinced Helmut Marko and Laurent Mekies with his solid performances. His promotion to the second seat of the Austrian team would only be a matter of time. An announcement is even expected before the end of the season.
Concerning the first seat, that of Verstappen, often announced on the Mercedes side last summer, Red Bull has finally secured the future of its quadruple world champion. But some continue to imagine the Dutchman in other colors, starting with Guenther Steiner, former director of Haas.
Verstappen with a rookie
Asked to compose his ideal team if he were to take over a team, Steiner did not hesitate, the Dutchman would be his number one driver. “For the best possible team, I would, of course, take Max Verstappen”he confides, quoted by
Nextgen-Auto. The choice of his teammate, on the other hand, is surprising: “I always said I would take Oscar Piastri. But I think now I would choose one of the rookies, Gabriel Bortoleto. I would take Max and Gabriel”.
And to frame this unprecedented duo, Steiner does not see Red Bull, but Mercedes. “The company that I like the most, or rather the team that I prefer for its infrastructure and its organization, is Mercedes. I really like the way everything is structured there”he adds. A Verstappen-Bortoleto duo at Mercedes, designed by Adrian Newey, this is the ideal team according to Guenther Steiner.
