Red Bull announce major driver change to complete F1 grid for 2025 season

The Racing Bulls team have officially completed the F1 2025 grid by announcing their second driver for the upcoming season.

Racing Bulls - who competed as RB in 2024 but have changed their name again for the new season - signed Yuki Tsunoda to a contract earlier this year but were waiting on confirmation of their second driver.

Liam Lawson raced with the team to end 2024 but has since been promoted to the main Red Bull team following Sergio Perez's departure.

That left a vacancy at Racing Bulls, who have competed in F1 since 2006 and effectively act as a development team for Red Bull, though both teams operate as separate entities.

They have now confirmed that French driver Isack Hadjar has been signed to race in 2025, with the Formula 2 runner-up partnering Tsunoda.

Hadjar is part of the Red Bull junior academy, and was largely expected to be given the seat once Red Bull made the decision between whether Lawson or Tsunoda would drive for them next season.

He will be one of five new full-time drivers on the grid next season, though two of those - Haas driver Oliver Bearman and Alpine's Jack Doohan - gained Grand Prix experience in 2024.

Who is Isack Hadjar?

The Paris-born driver has quickly made his way through the junior categories in recent years, and was runner-up to Gabriel Bortoleto in this season's Formula 2 championship.

Hadjar took the title battle all the way to the final feature race in Abu Dhabi, and may have won it had his Campos car not stalled on the grid.

He won four feature races in 2024 - more than any other driver - and drove Verstappen's car in the first free practice session at Abu Dhabi.

The 20-year-old will now make the step up to F1, and said after his announcement as a new RB driver: "I'm very excited to step into my new role at VCARB [Racing Bulls full name]. This is huge for myself, my family and all the people who have believed in me from the beginning.

"It'll be a huge learning curve, but I'm ready to work hard and do the best I can for the team.

"I look forward to working with and learning from Yuki. I've always looked up to him, he went through the Red Bull junior programme like myself and we've shared a similar path to F1."