Isack Hadjar impresses Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies with early 2026 commitment

Isack Hadjar’s early days with Red Bull have left team boss Laurent Mekies very impressed, with the French driver moving his home as a display of commitment.

Hadjar will be Max Verstappen’s newest teammate in Formula 1 this season, with the Frenchman impressing during his rookie season in F1 2025.

Isack Hadjar shows dedication in first weeks at Red Bull

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With neither Liam Lawson nor Yuki Tsunoda impressing sufficiently in 2025 to be kept on alongside Verstappen for this year, Isack Hadjar secured the call-up to the senior squad after an impressive debut season with Racing Bulls.

Becoming a regular points scorer, Hadjar even finished on the podium for the first time as he secured a third-place finish at the Dutch Grand Prix.

Such efforts were enough to convince then-Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko that Hadjar was the correct choice to slot in alongside Verstappen, although it took until the season finale for the move to be made official.

Hadjar’s Bahrain running wasn’t entirely smooth, with two of his days compromised by reliability issues, while the French driver also suffered a minor setback in Barcelona due to a crash in the middle of the week.

But Hadjar has shown signs that he’s made a good acclimatisation to the Red Bull RB22, saying that he believes his first race win can be on his radar in 2026 and revealing that setup changes made late in Barcelona responded positively against his expectations, meaning his understanding of the car appears on track.

“Out of six sessions, we missed two, so it’s quite a bit, but we always made sure to compact and make the most of the other running we got,” Hadjar said just before the end of the Bahrain tests.

“So it was never boring, to be honest!

“I feel as ready as I can, heading into Melbourne, and the guys have been very, very good at making the most of the tests.

“We’ve been through so many test items. So I’m very glad with the understanding of the car.”

Hadjar’s new team boss, Laurent Mekies, said he’s delighted to see the efforts the French driver has been making in his bid to be as comfortable in his new environment as possible.

“He’s doing a very, very good job,” Mekies said.

“He moved to the UK in the very early days of January. He had moved to Faenza a few days after signing last year for Racing Bulls, so it shows you the commitment.

“He’s in the factory every other day in the sim. He went back between the two tests to be on the simulator. He’s completely merged with the team, with the engineers.

“He got a bit unlucky with on-track running. We lost half a day with him last week. He lost half a day again this morning [Day 1 of test 2].

“But it’s part of the game. So, in a nutshell, very happy with the early things he’s showing us in and outside of the car.”

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With all the pre-season on-track running over and done with, Hadjar said his goal between now and the season opener in Melbourne is to continue working on what he can back at the Red Bull factory, including conversations with his four-time F1 World Champion teammate.

“Basically, the goal for Melbourne is to make the most of the learning, go back on the sim, correlate all that, and try to make sure that it is clear,” he said.

“The work with Max has been very good. He’s very open so far. So it’s good to have him by my side.”

After his promotion to Red Bull was confirmed, Hadjar revealed that he is taking a softly-softly approach to his first season as an expected front-runner.

With his predecessors having crumbled in the face of Verstappen’s relentless speed and consistency, Hadjar said he is going in with the mentality of knowing he will be distinctly second-best.

“The goal is to accept that I’m going to be slower the first month,” he said, when asked about whether he believes he can be up near Max right from the start.

“I think that if you go into that mindset, you accept already it’s going to be very tough, looking at the data and seeing things you can’t achieve yet, it’s going to be very frustrating.

“But, if you know, then you’re more prepared. [Taking this approach has] never happened to me before in my life.”

Hadjar proved his resilience almost immediately upon his arrival in F1, as he bounced back from the crushing disappointment of a silly mistake in his debut weekend when he crashed out on the formation lap.

This resilience, as well as his self-critical attitude, has won him many fans. Amongst them is Alan Permane, who stepped up as Racing Bulls’ team boss in the middle of 2025 following the management reshuffle at Red Bull that saw Mekies switch shirts.

“Isack has everything he needs to be successful, everything,” Permane said of his former charge.

” He’s fast, he’s inquisitive. He is always ready to learn more, always ready to when things aren’t going so well with him.

“The first place he looks is at himself. He doesn’t try to blame the car. He doesn’t try to blame the setup or the power unit, or anything like that.

“His first reaction is, ‘What can I do better?’ I think, with that attitude, that he’s got a very, very bright future.”

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