Why a Max Verstappen partnership ‘scares’ Isack Hadjar

Isack Hadjar has admitted that he’s feeling some trepidation about the prospect of lining up alongside Max Verstappen in F1 2026, should he be promoted to Red Bull.

The French driver is the leading prospect to be placed alongside Verstappen in the Red Bull driver line-up next year, having proven a sensation during his rookie season with Racing Bulls.

‘No decision’ as Isack Hadjar makes ‘it’s written’ claim

Having recently stepped onto the podium with third place at the Dutch Grand Prix, Hadjar added to what has been an already impressive season with the Faenza-based squad as he currently occupies ninth place in the Drivers’ Championship.

As a rookie, Hadjar has scored points in an additional six of the 16 Grands Prix so far this year, having bounced back strongly from a difficult start to his career when he crashed out of his debut race on the formation lap.

The identity of Verstappen’s teammate for 2026 is yet to be confirmed, with the experienced Yuki Tsunoda yet to show clear signs that he has adapted to life in an expected front-running car. Indeed, so calamitous has Tsunoda’s season been so far that he has only scored 12 points in total – three of which came while he was still Hadjar’s teammate at Racing Bulls during the Chinese Grand Prix weekend.

Verstappen, in the other car, has scored 230 points, a gulf that even eclipses the difference between the Dutch driver and 2024 teammate Sergio Perez, with the Mexican driver bought out of his contract at the conclusion of last season.

The experimentation with placing the rookie driver Liam Lawson, followed quickly by the much more experienced Tsunoda, has failed to net Red Bull any results, but Hadjar has shown very clear promise during what has been a meteoric rise in profile this year.

Hadjar is due to appear on Canal+ programme ‘Clique’ on September 22nd, and preview clips from his interview with presenter Mouloud Achour have added weight to the suggestion that it’s the French driver who looks set to get the call-up to Red Bull next year.

“It scares me, but it’s also incredibly exciting!” Hadjar said of the prospect of being partnered with Verstappen.

“Seeing myself team up with Max? Of course! And what a line-up!”

Aged just 20, Hadjar acknowledged that the challenge of being Verstappen’s teammate – a position in which precious few drivers have thrived – is an opportunity too good to turn down, despite the difficulties others have faced.

“Of course, it’s early in my career, but I may have this opportunity,” he said.

“You give me the same car as the best driver in the world, and he’s right next to me. I have the opportunity to compare myself to him, and I have the same chances as him.”

Asked by Achour whether his questions suggesting him as a Red Bull driver are “spoilers”, Hadjar replied, “You’re not really spoiling, it’s the trajectory. It’s written.”

Just how likely is Hadjar’s promotion to the senior team after his first year? Sources close to the situation have suggested to PlanetF1.com that Hadjar may have already been informed by Helmut Marko that he’s done enough to secure the seat, although other sources have indicated that the extent of the conversations between Marko and Hadjar has not been this unequivocal.

What is known is that an agreement to bring Hadjar to Red Bull has not yet been signed, and that, while the outlook is promising for him, the French driver must continue to impress Red Bull’s management beyond Marko alone.

When approached for comment, a Red Bull spokesperson told PlanetF1.com, “No decisions on driver line-up have been finalised for 2026. Laurent [Mekies] has gone on record to say we will take our time and are in the very lucky position of having 4 seats to fill.”

Isack Hadjar v Red Bull squad: F1 2025 head-to-head stats

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

As for Tsunoda’s likelihood of remaining in his seat, Marko was visibly impatient when asked questions about the incumbent during the Italian Grand Prix weekend, with one journalist even apologising for asking the Red Bull advisor a question pertaining to the Japanese driver’s race.

Team boss Mekies worked directly with Tsunoda at Racing Bulls, as well as with Hadjar for the first half of this season, and has been complimentary of both.

“Yuki has been making a good step in the last three races,” he said of Tsunoda.

“We all want more, but he’s doing a good job. He was, for the first time, back in the points after seven races in Zandvoort. He was close enough to Max in Budapest and had his best qualifying with the team in Spa. So he’s on a positive trend.”

On Hadjar, he said, “It’s obviously extremely nice to watch Isack’s progress in the Racing Bulls car. To see him performing at the level he did in the last race was a fantastic demonstration of how much progress he’s made this season.”

But Mekies has emphasised that short-term successes such as Hadjar’s podium won’t sway him, and that time is on Red Bull’s side when it comes to making a decision.

“As much as we like the emotion of the race-by-race feeling, we have a feeling in Budapest, we have another feeling here,” he said.

“The truth is, if you step back, look at it from a Red Bull perspective, it’s our drivers.

“We have them all under contract. It’s only us making the decisions, us meaning the Red Bull group. You know, why would you put yourself under pressure based on a result or another?

“So, hence, the simple truth is that we will take our time. There are nine races to go.

“Really, we are relaxed about the driver topic, because fundamentally we have all our cards on the Red Bull side, and we can take a few more weeks – or months – to decide. Of course, that doesn’t mean we have to wait until the last race to decide, because we respect that it might impact our drivers one way or another. But for sure, we feel we have time right now.”

Should Hadjar indeed move up to Red Bull, it would likely spell the end of Tsunoda’s Red Bull F1 career, with little chance of a return to the Racing Bulls squad.

Tsunoda has been linked with a switch to Aston Martin, courtesy of his links with Honda, with the Silverstone team set to become the Japanese car company’s factory team from F1 2026.

The most likely scenario for the sister team, should Hadjar step up into Tsunoda’s seat, is thus for Arvid Lindblad to be promoted from Formula 2, joining the known quantity Lawson as a benchmark as the Kiwi has found his feet after his in-season switch to the squad.

Marko is known to have engaged in some preliminary talks with McLaren junior driver Alex Dunne, but it’s understood these talks were merely for relationship establishment purposes rather than with an eye to a 2026 programme.

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