Red Bull's contingency plan in place should Max Verstappen face a race ban: Reports

Reportedly, Red Bull has a contingency plan in place if Max Verstappen faces a race ban in the next two race weekends. The Dutch driver is only a point away from a race ban after he was given three penalty points on his FIA Superlicense for his antics during the 2025 Spanish GP.

The four-time F1 world champion was running in P4 but was instructed by the Austrian team to give his place to Mercedes driver George Russell. Verstappen was reluctant to give back the position and admitted that, in his frustration, he rammed into the side of Russell's car.

As per Dutch F1 reporter Eric van Haren, Red Bull is ready with a contingency plan if Max Verstappen does get a race ban in the next race weekends. The former world champions will promote either Isack Hadjar or Liam Lawson in Verstappen's place, with Visa Cash App Racing Bulls reserve driver Ayumu Iwasa taking their place in the Faenza-based outfit.

Lawson has previously driven the RB21 in the first two races of the 2025 season before getting demoted to the junior team. Meanwhile, Hadjar has been knocking on the door of a promotion after an impressive start to his rookie campaign.

However, the Milton-Keynes outfit would hope that Max Verstappen can keep his nose clean for the next two races, as he would have two penalty points removed from his Superlicense after the Austrian GP.

Former F1 driver backs Red Bull and Max Verstappen for a comeback in 2025

Former F1 driver Sebastian Buemi stated that he was confident that Red Bull and Max Verstappen would make the necessary improvements to make a comeback in the 2025 season.

While appearing on the RacingNews365 podcast, the Red Bull sim driver said:

“I've not been in during the last few weeks, so it's difficult to have a clear picture. But Max can overperform the car. He got three pole positions this year, but many times it was extremely close. If you look at the race in Barcelona, where they had the safety car, he was not that far. I think he was four seconds behind Norris.

“It would not take that much for the car to get better and have a real opportunity to fight against them properly. We’ve seen that he can on some occasions, depending on the track. I don't think Red Bull is going to just give up and fully focus on next year. It’s a well-organised team, you know, they can do things at the same time."

After the Spanish GP, Max Verstappen finds himself 49 points behind Oscar Piastri and 39 points behind Lando Norris and sits in third in the Driver's standings with the European leg of the season about to kick in full gear.