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Racing Bulls arrive at Austin this weekend as the best of the rest in Formula 1’s new-rules era — fifth in the constructors’ championship on 100 points, 32 clear of Alpine — and still the only team on the grid, alongside Haas, without a confirmed driver line-up for 2027. Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad have delivered that result between them. Neither has yet been told he will keep the car.
Team principal Alan Permane said after the Singapore Grand Prix that the Faenza team would settle its 2027 pairing “in the coming weeks”, with six rounds still to run from the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas on 25 October to the Abu Dhabi finale on 6 December. The expectation inside the paddock is that both men stay. The expectation is not the same thing as a signature.
What has the team actually said?
Peter Bayer, the Racing Bulls chief executive, has been the most openly supportive voice. Asked whether he saw a reason to change, Bayer was blunt: “No, because Arvid and Liam are both doing a fantastic job. I believe Liam is currently ninth in the drivers’ championship, and he has shown in both qualifying and races that he is very fast.”
Bayer was careful, though, to place the decision where it belongs — with Permane, who he said “will do what is best for the team”. That is the structural reality at Red Bull’s second squad: the sporting case is made in Faenza, the final call is shaped in Milton Keynes, and the junior programme always has a claim on at least one seat.
Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz has reported that the decision has effectively been made in the current drivers’ favour. “They work well together, they score lots of points, it looks like Racing Bulls are going to finish fifth in the constructors’ and if only to reward them for scoring those points, they will be given another contract,” he said. Lawson himself sounded like a man expecting good news after Marina Bay, calling it “a good year overall” and the team “very strong”, and describing himself as “very, very happy”.
How do the numbers compare?
The intra-team record is clear but not damning. Across 17 rounds:
- Lawson: 75 points in total — 61 scored for Racing Bulls, plus 14 during his substitute stint at Red Bull — and ninth in the drivers’ standings
- Lindblad: 38 points in his rookie season, including four on debut with eighth place in Australia
- Qualifying head-to-head: Lawson 9-5
- Race head-to-head: Lawson 10-4
- Yuki Tsunoda: one point, from a single stand-in appearance at Zandvoort
Lawson has contributed 61 per cent of the team’s championship total from only 14 Racing Bulls starts, a return built on weekends like Singapore, where he took fifth in the sprint and seventh in the grand prix for 10 points. That Red Bull cameo matters too: deputising for the injured Isack Hadjar at the Dutch Grand Prix, Lawson qualified within 0.115 seconds of Max Verstappen — a data point that reframed a driver dropped by the senior team after two races in 2025.
Lindblad’s case is different in kind. The 19-year-old Briton, who required an FIA exemption to be granted a superlicence before his 18th birthday, scored on debut, ran as high as third on the opening lap in Melbourne and raced Lewis Hamilton wheel-to-wheel. His standout result remains sixth at Monaco from 15th on the grid. A 38-point rookie campaign in the most technically unfamiliar cars F1 has produced in a generation is not a line-up problem.
Where does Nikola Tsolov fit?
The complication is Bulgarian. Nikola Tsolov, 19, leads the Formula 2 championship for Campos Racing as a rookie, has taken six wins including a clean sweep at Silverstone and set a new record of three consecutive feature-and-sprint victories. He completed his first Test of Previous Cars run at Imola in late August, the mandatory 300-kilometre gateway to free practice outings, and F2 chief executive Bruno Michel has said he is “ready”.
Red Bull’s history says that counts for something. Hadjar’s promotion to partner Verstappen — extended for 2027 ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with Verstappen himself contracted to the end of 2030 — came after one season at Racing Bulls. But Kravitz dismissed the idea of Tsolov displacing Lawson as “bonkers”, and the most likely outcome reported is a 2027 test and reserve role, with FP1 mileage, rather than a race seat.
What it means going forward
This is a genuine three-into-two squeeze, and it is the first time in years that Red Bull’s feeder team has had a problem of surplus rather than scarcity. Fifth place is worth real prize money and, more importantly, it validates a technical direction the team will want continuity to exploit in 2027.
The sensible read: Lawson and Lindblad stay, Tsolov waits a year. The risk is that Racing Bulls, historically the most ruthless seat on the grid, decides a title-winning F2 rookie cannot be parked. Six races remain to answer it — and at Red Bull, nothing is signed until it is announced.
Ahmad Ali is Sports Editor at SportsPortal.net.
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**Sources:** [Grande Premio – Lawson and Lindblad await decision](https://grandepremio.com/en/f1/racing-bulls-2027-f1-drivers-lawson-and-lindblad-await-decision/) · [Grande Premio – set to retain for 2027](https://grandepremio.com/en/f1/racing-bulls-set-to-retain-lawson-and-lindblad-for-2027/) · [Grande Premio – Lawson vs Lindblad numbers](https://grandepremio.com/en/f1/lawson-leads-lindblad-10-4-in-f1-races-but-is-that-enough-for-2027/) · [PlanetF1 – Lawson lauds Racing Bulls](https://www.planetf1.com/news/liam-lawson-racing-bulls-verdict-f1-future) · [GPblog – Bayer on Lawson and Lindblad](https://www.gpblog.com/en/exclusive-news/racing-bulls-is-leaning-toward-this-decision-on-lawson-and-lindblad-for-2027) · [The Race – Lawson replaces injured Hadjar](https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/lawson-replaces-injured-hadjar-as-tsunoda-gets-f1-return/) · [ESPN – Hadjar signs Red Bull extension](https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/50011696/isack-hadjar-signs-red-bull-extension-race-alongside-max-verstappen-2027) · [Formula1.com – Tsolov Silverstone double](https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/f2-red-bull-junior-tsolov-achieves-the-double-after-dominating-silverstone-feature-race.1mJ3lR1wifNqS35naRyEva) · [Formula1.com – Lindblad P8 on debut](https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/top-10-rookie-drivers-to-score-points-on-f1-debut-as-lindblad-celebrates-p8.5X9KLwHuURo2Be1FTM7kEl) · [RacingNews365 – 2026 constructor standings](https://racingnews365.com/f1/standings/2026/teams)
Two notes on sourcing: the Kravitz “decision made” line is reported commentary, not a team announcement, and the article frames it that way. One source also attributed an “Alpine had a double podium in Brazil” remark to Lawson, which is inconsistent with the 2026 calendar (São Paulo falls on 6–8 November), so I left it out.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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