Isack Hadjar says teaming with Max Verstappen “scares” him — and he’d still take the shot
Isack Hadjar isn’t pretending the idea of sharing a Red Bull garage with Max Verstappen is a walk in the park. He knows exactly what that seat does to people. He also sounds ready to grab it with both hands.
Fresh off a breakout rookie campaign with Racing Bulls — headlined by a superb podium at Zandvoort — the 20-year-old Frenchman has thrust himself to the front of the queue for Red Bull’s second seat in 2026. On French TV show “Clique,” Hadjar was asked about the prospect of lining up alongside Verstappen. His answer was honest and disarming.
“It scares me, but it’s also incredibly exciting,” he said. “Seeing myself team up with Max? Of course! And what a line-up!”
Hadjar hasn’t had it easy. He binned it on the formation lap of his debut, wore the bruise, and came back swinging. Since then he’s stacked up consistent points and a headline result at the Dutch Grand Prix that turned murmurs into a proper paddock conversation. He currently sits inside the top 10 in the standings, an impressive return for a first-year driver in the Faenza car.
The Verstappen side of the equation is obvious. With the Dutchman setting the standard week in, week out, Red Bull’s revolving door for the other seat has become sport’s toughest gig. Sergio Pérez was bought out at the end of last season; Liam Lawson got a look; then came the call for Yuki Tsunoda to step in mid-year. The results haven’t matched expectations, and the team is still hunting for a long-term answer.
Hadjar knows exactly what he’d be signing up for. “You give me the same car as the best driver in the world, and he’s right next to me,” he said. “I have the opportunity to compare myself to him, and I have the same chances as him.” Asked if the move felt inevitable, he grinned: “You’re not really spoiling — it’s the trajectory. It’s written.”
Not quite, say the bosses. The message from the Red Bull camp is consistent: there’s no signature yet, and there’s no rush. With four seats across the two teams, they can afford patience. Racing Bulls team principal Laurent Mekies — who’s worked closely with both Tsunoda and Hadjar — has preached exactly that, warning against snap calls off the back of one big Sunday.
Mekies has, however, liked what he’s seen. He’s praised Tsunoda’s recent uptick — points again at Zandvoort, a cleaner trendline through the summer — while calling Hadjar’s Zandvoort podium a “fantastic demonstration” of his progress. The subtext is simple: form matters, but the body of work matters more, and there are still plenty of laps left in 2025.
If Hadjar does step up, the dominoes get interesting. It would almost certainly close the Red Bull chapter for Tsunoda, who’s long been linked with Aston Martin given Honda’s factory tie-up begins in 2026. Racing Bulls, in that scenario, would likely lean on Lawson as the known quantity and consider promoting the rapid Arvid Lindblad from Formula 2. There’s been polite chatter with other juniors in the market, but nothing that points to a 2026 fast-track.
Strip the noise away and the story is pretty clear. Red Bull wants a fast, adaptable, resilient partner for Verstappen in the first year of the new rules. Hadjar’s rookie year has ticked more boxes than most expected — speed, recovery, racecraft under pressure — and he’s handled the glare well enough to turn a TV soundbite into a statement of intent.
And the fear? That might be the healthiest part of the whole thing. You don’t beat Verstappen by pretending it’s easy. You start by admitting the mountain’s high — then you start climbing.
