Isack Hadjar has walked into the Red Bull seat at a moment when almost nobody in the paddock is quite sure what “normal” looks like anymore — and that, in the eyes of Sergio Perez, is exactly why the timing suits him.
Red Bull arrives in Melbourne next week for the opening round of 2026 with Max Verstappen starting yet another season alongside a new team-mate. In the space of 16 months, Verstappen will have had four different partners in the other garage, a churn that’s become its own subplot to Red Bull’s recent era.
Perez knows the role better than most. He was still in that car at the 2024 finale in Abu Dhabi, expecting to continue, only to be dropped a week later after a season in which he scored just over a third of Verstappen’s points. Verstappen took a fourth straight title; Perez ended up eighth in the standings. Red Bull’s message was clear: matching Verstappen might be unrealistic, but getting close enough to matter is non-negotiable.
What followed only reinforced Christian Horner’s old line about it being “probably the toughest job in Formula 1”. Liam Lawson was promoted, then removed after two race weekends. Yuki Tsunoda stepped in and, despite a full campaign, managed just 30 points across 22 races before being moved into a reserve role.
Now it’s Hadjar — 21 years old, quick, and already battle-scarred in a way rookies rarely are. His first F1 season with Racing Bulls was headline material from the opening lap in Australia, where he was left in tears by the side of the track after crashing on the formation lap. He responded with a podium at the Dutch Grand Prix and ended the year having outscored both Lawson and Tsunoda in the standings. Red Bull confirmed in the build-up to the season-ending Abu Dhabi race that he’d be promoted to partner Verstappen.
The obvious question is whether any of it can possibly be different this time, or whether the second Red Bull will remain a high-pressure revolving door. Perez, speaking in Bahrain, framed it through the one variable that really does change the calculus: the reset.
“It’s great to come into Red Bull with such a change in the regulations,” Perez said. “I think Isack is a very talented driver, he’s shown that.
“I’m sure as long as he stays cool throughout the year, he will have a very successful career in Formula 1. And also being teammates with Max at Red Bull, it’s a great team. So I think it’s a great place for him to be at this point of his career. I think it’s a massive opportunity.”
That’s not empty encouragement. The 2026 cars are all-new, the power unit formula has changed, and the driving is expected to lean more heavily on energy management than what many have spent the last few seasons refining. When everyone’s re-learning, the established order inside teams can blur — at least temporarily. The old reference points are gone, and so are some of the habits that tend to exaggerate gaps between drivers who are comfortable in a mature package and those who are still trying to find the edge.
Alex Albon, who lived the Verstappen team-mate experience in 2019 and 2020, sees it similarly. If the regulation shift is as disruptive as expected, it can act as a kind of amnesty — not for results, but for the process of getting there.
“I think Isack is a quick driver,” Albon said. “And I think actually a lot of this regulation change will be good. It’s a fresh start for everyone.
“Based on what I’ve seen so far, he seems to be quite comfortable with the car and not just in terms of having a quick teammate, but the car itself. So I think he’s gonna do okay.”
For Hadjar, the transition is being sold — with some justification — as less of a leap and more of a continuation. He’s been on Red Bull’s books since 2021, has already done FP1 outings for the senior team in 2023 and 2024, and has worked in the background on simulator support sessions with the engineers he’ll now see every race weekend.
Perhaps more importantly, he isn’t walking into a completely unfamiliar leadership structure. Laurent Mekies, who led Racing Bulls when Hadjar made his F1 debut, is now in a senior Red Bull role after his promotion in 2025, giving Hadjar a familiar figure in an environment that can quickly become unforgiving when results aren’t immediate.
“It doesn’t really feel like jumping in a new team, to be honest,” Hadjar said. “I’ve been doing FP1s for this team already, back in ’23, ’24. I’ve been signed in ’21 so at the end of the day, I’m working with engineers that I’ve known for a while now.
“I’ve been on sim support sessions with them for the team. So, yeah, it made the transition a lot easier. And also having Laurent as a leader is great. I made my debut in Formula 1 with him, stepping into my second season with him is good. So it’s been very smooth, very lucky.”
None of that makes the job easier once the lights go out in Melbourne. Verstappen remains the benchmark inside Red Bull, and history says the second driver’s margin for error is thin. But 2026 offers something Lawson and Tsunoda didn’t really get: a clean-sheet season where everyone is still feeling for the limits, and where being adaptable might matter as much as being outright fast.
Hadjar’s first year proved he can absorb a shock, reset, and come back swinging. At Red Bull, that trait won’t be a nice-to-have — it’ll be the entry fee.
