Red Bull will on Tuesday confirm Arvid Lindblad as the first driver representing Britain to race for one of their Formula 1 teams since David Coulthard. Having delayed their 2026 driver decisions, the final calls were made ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix weekend.

Isack Hadjar will be promoted to partner Max Verstappen at the start of the 2026 season, replacing Yuki Tsunoda. And the Japanese racer is set to lose his place on the F1 grid entirely, with sister squad Racing Bulls said to have opted to retain Liam Lawson and promote 18-year-old Lindblad from Formula 2.

The teenager will become only the third British driver to race for one of Red Bull's teams since the energy drinks firm first entered the sport in 2005. Coulthard, by then a veteran, led the team on track while London-born Alex Albon represented both their outfits across the 2019 and 2020 seasons. The latter now drives for Williams and opted to race under the flag of Thailand, his mother's homeland.

Lindblad's promotion means six British drivers, including Albon, will be among the 22 on the grid when the new season begins at the Australian Grand Prix next March. He is sixth in the F2 standings heading into the final round of his first and what is set to be only season in the series, the highlight of which was a feature race victory in Barcelona.

Speaking after Sunday's race in Lusail, team principal Laurent Mekies confirmed that their driver decisions will be announced today. The Frenchman said: "All I can tell you is that we will in fact stick to our plan and we will announce on Tuesday what the driver line-up is. We are confident it will not disturb the focus in Abu Dhabi."

A day earlier, after qualifying on Saturday night, Ted Kravitz had revealed live on air from the Qatar paddock that Hadjar's long-anticipated promotion was set in stone. "I can save you the announcement that all these nice people on the socials are going to make next week, that Isack Hadjar will be joining Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing," he said on his Ted's Notebook programme.

"They've both been told. Yuki has been told, Isack has been told. Isack couldn't contain his excitement when he came to us on Thursday, and has been told, but can't tell us, and Yuki couldn't contain his disappointment when he came to us on Thursday, that he's been told and he's a bit sad about it."

Tsunoda out-qualified Verstappen for the first time since becoming his team-mate, starting fifth for the Sprint race in Qatar, one place ahead of the Dutchman. He converted that into four points for finishing fifth in that short-form race but suffered another Q1 exit in qualifying for the main Grand Prix, recovering on Sunday to finish 10th and add one more point to his meagre total of just 33 for the whole season, while title-chasing Verstappen has managed 396.