Verstappen in danger of F1 race BAN with replacement unclear

Red Bull may be forced into a situation in which they have to replace Max Verstappen this season.

The Dutchman vaulted to a surprise second place in last weekend's season opener in Australia, helped by wet and changing conditions, pushing eventual winner Lando Norris hard after a late safety car.

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That was despite McLaren clearly having the superior car in Melbourne, with Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri managing to open up a 16-second gap to Verstappen before the chaos of rain and multiple safety cars ensued.

However, there are question marks surrounding Red Bull's pace still, and also whether Verstappen will be able to compete in all 24 races this season.

Will Verstappen be banned by the FIA?

The four-time world champion remains dangerously close to a one-race ban, issued by the FIA if a driver picks up 12 penalty points on their super licence over the course of 12 months.

Verstappen has eight of those following some aggressive driving at the end of last season that resulted in multiple FIA penalties, and the first of those eight points are not due to expire until the end of June.

This means that Verstappen has to survive the first 11 races of the season with not too much room to manoeuvre, or risk losing out on a maximum of 25 points to his rivals in the drivers' championship.

Who could replace Verstappen?

Of course, Red Bull would not lose out in the constructors' championship - other than the obvious implications of not having their four-time champion racing for them - and would be able to put another driver in the seat alongside Liam Lawson.

The obvious option would be Yuki Tsunoda. The Japanese racer has just entered his fifth season with Red Bull's sister team, and has recently outperformed the likes of Lawson, Daniel Ricciardo and Nyck de Vries in that seat.

He would have considered himself unfortunate not to have been given the promotion up to Red Bull in the first place, and his fifth-place qualifying performance at the Australian GP laid down a clear statement of intent to try and beat Lawson as many times as he can in 2025.

Tsunoda's team-mate Isack Hadjar could be another option. The 20-year-old suffered a nightmare debut in Melbourne, but is clearly a very talented young driver who is set to have a big career.

He finished as runner-up to fellow 2025 F1 rookie Gabriel Bortoleto in the 2024 F2 championship, and is now looking to put himself firmly in Christian Horner's thinking for the future.

While both of these drivers would be great options to replace Verstappen at Red Bull, it would require more driver shuffling, with somebody else needing to replace either Tsunoda or Hadjar at Racing Bulls.

Ayumu Iwasa would likely be the firm favourite to do this, although talented 17-year-old Arvid Lindblad is being touted as the next Verstappen.

Red Bull have applied for an exception to get Lindblad a super licence before he turns 18, so that he can test in F1 cars and maybe even compete in practice sessions, as Mercedes did for Kimi Antonelli in 2024.

If that is granted by the FIA, could Lindblad step up into the Racing Bulls seat for one race in 2025? Or, could he even be the one to replace Verstappen at Red Bull in the event of a one-race ban to prevent the need for driver reshuffling at RB too?

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