Red Bull Racing could replace the under-pressure Yuki Tsunoda with four-time IndyCar champion Álex Palou in the latest twist to the team’s driver saga.
According to the Indianapolis Star, Red Bull Racing has “expressed interest” in placing the IndyCar star alongside Max Verstappen from next season.
The move would represent the team’s third driver change in 12 months as it seeks a viable partner to the Dutch four-time champion.
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Incumbent Tsunoda has struggled for form since joining the team from the third round of the season.
The Japanese ace, who was highly rated during his time at junior team Racing Bulls, has scored just seven points across three scoring finishes alongside Verstappen, who is third in the championship with 187 points.
Tsunoda’s paltry points tally — following Liam Lawson’s scoreless two rounds at the beginning of the year — has cost Red Bull Racing any hope of contending for the constructors championship.
It’s unclear whether talks with Palou have advanced beyond an expression of interest, however.
Palou and his management team have denied having any knowledge of discussions over a possible F1 switch.
The Spaniard’s Chip Ganassi Racing team has also denied having any discussions with Red Bull Racing. Palou is contracted to CGR next season but reportedly has an escape clause that would allow a Formula 1 team to buy him out of the final year of the deal.
Palou is highly rated internationally, having made his way through the European junior formulae between 2014 and 2018 and having finished third in the highly competitive Super Formula series in Japan in 2019.
His switch to IndyCar was almost immediately successful. He won the title in just his second season, in 2021, and has claimed four championships in total.
In 2024 Autosport ranked him as the world’s fourth best driver behind Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris.
Talks with Red Bull Racing wouldn’t be Palou’s first brush with Formula 1.
The 28-year-old sensationally announced via social media in 2022 that he would leave CGR to join the McLaren IndyCar driver roster for the following season in a deal that would have seen him accumulate F1 kilometres via an extensive private testing program as Woking’s reserve driver.
Chip Ganassi Racing took legal action on the grounds it already had him under contract.
The case was settled by Palou agreeing to remain with CGR until the end of 2023, after which he would switch to McLaren. He would be allowed to test McLaren Formula 1 machinery in the interim. He entered a free practice session with McLaren at the 2022 United States Grand Prix in Austin.
However, with a second IndyCar championship in the offing, Palou notified McLaren in 2023 that he would walk away from that agreement to remain with CGR.
McLaren is suing the Spaniard for more than US$30 million (A$46 million) for breaching his contract.
Palou gave his reasons as having “lost trust and confidence that [McLaren] genuinely intended to support his ambition to race” in Formula 1.
Lando Norris has been retained by McLaren on a series of rolling long-term deals since 2019. Oscar Piastri joined the team in 2023 and signed his first contract extension later that year.
McLaren has denied ever promising him a route to a full-time Formula 1 seat.
Palou sealed the 2023 IndyCar title shortly after announcing his McLaren split, and he won the IndyCar championship for a third time last year.
Speaking earlier this season, before clinching his fourth championship, the 28-year-old appeared to close the door on another lunge at Formula 1.
“I’m not thinking at all about F1,” he told Divebomb after winning this year’s Indianapolis 500. “Maybe in ‘22, I was still thinking a little bit; ‘23, I was just like one per cent. But that’s now not anymore.
“The age and also the experience I had there and what I’m able to probably build here in America and in IndyCar, this is my focus. I have such a good place here on private life and also racing life that there’s probably almost no places that I would rather be.”
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In a separate interview with the Indianapolis Star he doubted whether he would be given the time to succeed in Formula 1, appearing to make reference — ironically — to Liam Lawson’s demotion from Red Bull Racing after just two rounds and Jack Doohan’s sacking from Alpine just six rounds into the season.
“There’s not many seats [in F1] that I’d want to be in,” he said. “And even still, you only have four races and you’re out, like we’ve seen twice this year”
“[F1] is not calling me anymore.
“I don’t think they’re having as much fun as I’m having here … I think [F1] is the total opposite.”
Red Bull has entertained inducting talent from the United States in the past, notably in 2022, when the brand attempted to sign IndyCar star Colton Herta to AlphaTauri for the following season.
Those efforts were stalled by the FIA refusing to grant the American an exemption to the superlicence rules, according to which he hadn’t demonstrated sufficient success during previous years to compete in Formula 1.
Herta had also been linked to the Cadillac team set to debut in the sport next season, but the Californian still does not qualify for a super licence.
The route from IndyCar to Formula 1 has been traversed before but has become less trodden over recent years.
Jacques Villeneuve was the last to manage the transition successfully, winning the Champ Car title in 1995 and the F1 championship in 1997.
If Tsunoda is replaced at the end of the season, Isack Hadjar is expected to be promoted from Racing Bulls to replace him, with Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad poised to make the jump from Formula 2.
If Tsunoda is retained for another year, Lindblad is tipped to either replace Lawson at Racing Bulls or compete in a second F2 campaign.
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