Rosberg tells Hadjar: Don’t take the Red Bull bait — not this late
Isack Hadjar’s name is doing the rounds again — not for what he’s doing in a Racing Bulls car, but for what some think he should be doing in a Red Bull one. And Nico Rosberg, never shy of calling it as he sees it, thinks the 20-year-old should slam the door on any late-season promotion talk.
There’s no active plan to parachute Hadjar into the big team before Abu Dhabi. Racing Bulls boss Laurent Mekies made that clear around Monza: the programme’s stacked with options for 2026, there’s no rush, and “we do not plan to change during the season.” Good news, says Rosberg — because a Hail Mary swap now would be all risk and very little upside.
Red Bull’s early-season call to replace Liam Lawson with Yuki Tsunoda hasn’t changed the team’s dynamic in the way they’d hoped. Max Verstappen remains the points machine, dragging the RB21 to results that only he seems able to tease from it. Tsunoda, dropped into Verstappen’s world, has struggled to make a dent. The standings tell the story: Verstappen owns an overwhelming share of Red Bull’s haul, while Tsunoda sits deep in the order after 14 starts.
Hadjar, meanwhile, has done exactly what you want from a graduate: tidy Sundays, a spike of brilliance with that Dutch Grand Prix podium, and a steady climb into the top half of the table. He’s earned the right to be mentioned in the same sentence as “Red Bull seat.” But timing matters — and Rosberg’s message was blunt.
“If I’m Isack, I’m saying no,” the 2016 World Champion told Sky F1, stressing that a late-season move next to Verstappen can be a career booby trap. That seat is a benchmark from hell. You step in midstream, barely any setup history, up against a driver who can drive around the car’s quirks and is wired into the team — and you’re judged immediately.
It’s a warning born from a long, uncomfortable list. Red Bull’s second seat has dealt out harsh lessons for talented drivers in the Verstappen era. The RB21 is quick in the right window but a narrow one, and Verstappen has built the window around himself. Anyone arriving at short notice will be fighting the car, the clock and the comparisons.
Jamie Chadwick, on pundit duty, agreed with the risk assessment — just not the practicality. In her view, if the boss calls, Hadjar can’t really say no. She’d want to keep learning in the car he knows, especially with unfamiliar tracks like Las Vegas and Singapore still to come, but admits the word “no” carries limited currency in that situation. She also called it what it so often becomes at the wrong time: a poisoned chalice.
Here’s the thing: Hadjar doesn’t need the chaos. He’s got momentum, he’s banked a signature result, and he’s earning the kind of trust that makes winter decisions easier, calmer and more deliberate. Racing Bulls have been clear they want the season to run its course. Red Bull know better than anyone that yanking the wheel mid-season can spook a young driver and muddle the data.
There’s also the Yuki question. Tsunoda’s form at the senior team is under the microscope, and that pressure doesn’t ease with every Verstappen win-or-bust weekend. But if Red Bull really want to evaluate options, they’ll get a far cleaner read by waiting for a reset — new parts, new tyres, new baseline, new calendar. Not by throwing a rookie into the hottest seat in the sport with eight races and no testing.
Hadjar’s job, then, is simple: keep doing what he’s doing. Keep the scoreline moving, keep the errors low, keep giving Mekies reasons to say “told you so” in the Monday debriefs. The rest will be handled across a negotiation table, not a panic button.
And if the phone does ring with a late-season offer? Rosberg’s advice is ringing louder: not now. Not like this.
