Former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard hailed Red Bull’s driver market struggles as a ‘good problem’, as the Milton Keynes-based outfit balances its talent pool with sister team Racing Bulls.
The Red Bull stable has, as ever, been the centre of transfer market speculation. Particularly, Max Verstappen’s future is a frequent point of discussion, with his exit clause apparently able to be activated over the summer break.
Fellow drivers Isack Hadjar, Liam Lawson, and rookie Arvid Lindblad have performed strongly in the season so far. But F2 championship leader Nikola Tsolov is looking for an F1 promotion. It’s thought that Lawson who would be most likely to make way, as the 24-year-old saw himself both promoted and demoted from Red Bull in 2025. Unless, of course, Verstappen does make a shock exit from the team and leaves another seat open.
However, rumours that Tsolov had already been ‘promised’ a seat were denied by Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane at Silverstone.
Coulthard ‘looking forward’ to seeing Tsolov in F1
On the Up to Speed podcast, Coulthard said: “It’s a good problem to have. I guess there’s always a possibility that, if they’re happy with the others, they could help position him [Tsolov] somewhere else [outside of Red Bull/Racing Bulls].
“Red Bull is ahead of the game in terms of their motorsports investment and drivers over the history of time, if you look at what they’ve invested and now what the valuations are.
“I don’t think they’re thinking ‘we’re getting to the limit of what we can afford to invest in this’.
“It’s a good problem to have. Listen for that name, Nikola Tsolov from Bulgaria. He drives very well, is a great personality out of the car as well. So I’m looking forward to seeing him in F1.”
Tsolov made history at Silverstone, becoming the fourth driver to achieve a clean sweep of wins across an F2 race weekend. This only added to his victory in the feature race in Austria. Leading the Bulgarian driver to become the first ever driver in F2 to win three consecutive races.
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