Red Bull chief Christian Horner has dropped a huge bombshell regarding the potential exit of one of the team’s stars.

Red Bull have had a busy week of driver switches, with Liam Lawson stepping up to replace Sergio Perez within the main team, and youngster Isack Hadjar being confirmed as Lawson’s replacement at VCARB.

Hadjar will join Yuki Tsunoda for the 2025 season, a driver who is set to take part in his fifth full season with the so-called ‘junior team’.

With Lawson having only raced in 11 grands prix throughout his young career, there may have been some expectation from Tsunoda that he would be the driver in line to sit alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull, but he has been dealt a major setback.

Will Tsunoda get a chance at Red Bull?

Tsunoda has excelled in his last two seasons at VCARB, beating team-mates Nyck de Vries, Daniel Ricciardo and Lawson during their short spells with the Faenza outfit, yet still finds himself needing to prove himself against another in Hadjar.

Despite that fine record up against his team-mates, however, Horner has now admitted that Red Bull may consider letting Tsunoda go altogether if he is not promoted to the main team next year.

“We’re acutely aware that if we’re not able to provide an opportunity for Yuki, being, in all honesty, this year [2025], does it make sense?” Horner told the media on keeping the Japanese driver into the future.

“You can’t have a driver in the support team for five years. You can’t always be the bridesmaid.

“You’ve either got to let them go at that point or look at something different.”