Alan Permane has rejected speculation that Formula 2 driver Nikola Tsolov has been offered a full-time seat with Racing Bulls for the 2027 season, with the team principal stating that they haven’t “spoken about it internally at all”.
Despite some inconsistency in their form, Racing Bulls have enjoyed a strong run in recent rounds, with both Liam Lawson and rookie Arvid Lindblad scoring points in Monaco and Barcelona-Catalunya.
They were distracted from their focus on adding more to their tally of 41 points at the Austrian Grand Prix as, heading into the weekend, rumours spread that they would replace one of their current line-up with Tsolov, who currently sits P2 in the F2 standings.
Asked for his view after Friday’s running at the Red Bull Ring, Permane said: “So, we haven’t spoken about it internally at all. Of course he’s there in our young driver programme, he’s doing a fantastic job in F2.
“This is race eight so we’re kind of just into the second third of the season so it’s very, very early and we haven’t had any discussions at all. I don’t know where it’s come from but it’s certainly not come from us.”
Tsolov joined the Red Bull Junior Team at the end of 2024 but has yet to make an appearance in any F1 practice sessions, with Racing Bulls opting to offer Ayumu Iwasa a drive during FP1 in Austria as part of their mandatory rookie running.
Permane was enthusiastic about the Japanese racer’s performance, which saw him place P15 before Lawson and Lindblad wound up P9 and P12 respectively in the day’s second practice session.
“A good day, a very good day,” the team boss concluded. “Starting with P1, we had Iwasa in the car deputising for Liam here. He did a great job for us – we did some aero investigation, learned some good stuff which we carried through to both cars for FP2.
“Both the race drivers are happy. The first laps were good, decent balance. We just worked through our programme. If we could improve the braking a little bit, that’s where they think the weaknesses are so that’s what we’re looking at overnight.
“[We’re] much happier than we were last weekend. It’s certainly working very well on a single lap and better on long runs than it was in Barcelona. I think we’ve still got a little bit of work to do there but we’re in a much happier place.”
