As Red Bull face the prospect of losing Max Verstappen for a race, Christian Horner says they have “enough drivers” in the pool to cover for the Dutchman.

But it is a situation they want to “desperately avoid”.

Who would replace Max Verstappen at Red Bull?

Verstappen arrived at round 10 of the F1 2025 championship, the Canadian Grand Prix, with a race ban hanging over his head after his penalty points tally hit 11 in Spain.

Under F1 regulations, any driver who incurs 12 points over a 12-month rolling period will be banned from the very next event.

That means a single point in Montreal will see Verstappen sit out Red Bull’s home race, the Austrian Grand Prix, while a point in Austria will sideline him from the British Grand Prix.

Only after Austria, on 30th June to be precise, will the reigning World Champion have two points erased from his licence, which will give him some breathing room.

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It begs the question, who would take his seat if he was banned for a race?

Red Bull have Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar at their sister team, but while Lawson faltered in his two early-season races for Red Bull before being replaced by Yuki Tsunoda, Racing Bulls aren’t keen on rookie revelation Hadjar’s debut campaign taking a detour.

Swiss-German publication Blick reported CEO Peter Bayer as having said: “For heaven’s sake, don’t take this talent away from us too soon.

“He should get to know the whole business by the end of 2026.

“Until then, we’ll just have to handcuff him!”

Red Bull did clear the way for another candidate with Arvid Lindblad granted his FIA Super Licence despite only being 17 years of age.

But while that led to suggestions that it could be Lindblad who makes a one-off appearance in the Red Bull RB21, Horner told Sky F1 the team would rather not disrupt his journey, and would instead choose another driver.

“Arvid Lindblad is at the very beginning of his journey in Formula 1, having been granted that license,” Horner said.

“First of all, [Max being banned] a situation that we want to desperately try and avoid. And should it come, we’ve got enough drivers to draw upon from the pool of Red Bull drivers.”

Asked whether Hadjar could then be that driver, the team principal replied: “We would deal with it if it happened.”

Verstappen was hit with three penalty points at the Spanish Grand Prix when the stewards ruled he was to blame for a late-crash collision with George Russell, in a move the Mercedes driver felt was “deliberate”.

Asked if he would change his appraoch to racing given the looming ban, Verstappen told the media including PlanetF1.com: “I don’t know, why should I?

“It is what it is. I was on eight points before and now it’s 11. I mean, I cannot just back out of everything. I’m just going to race like I always do.

“I trust myself.”

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