Hadjar warned ‘there’s no good time’ to be Max Verstappen’s teammate

Jolyon Palmer has reversed his stance on Isack Hadjar’s promotion, admitting there may be no such thing as the ‘perfect’ time to partner Max Verstappen.

After nine days of pre-season running, three of which were behind closed doors, he’s worried that the Red Bull RB22 will suit Verstappen’s racing style ‘pretty well’.

Jolyon Palmer reveals Isack Hadjar concern alongside Max Verstappen

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Verstappen will line up alongside a fourth different teammate in 16 months when the F1 2026 championship begins at the Albert Park circuit this weekend.

Having said goodbye to Sergio Perez after the 2024 season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Verstappen had Liam Lawson sitting in the sister RB21 when the 2025 championship began only for Yuki Tsunoda to replace the New Zealander after just two races.

Now it’s Hadjar’s turn.

Hadjar has been promoted to Red Bull after an incredible debut year in Formula 1, where he went from crying by the side of the track when he crashed on the formation lap in Melbourne, to standing alongside Verstappen on the Dutch Grand Prix podium. His season concluded with the announcement that he would partner with Verstappen in F1 2026.

Palmer applauded the promotion and the timing of it when he spoke on the Weekend Warm-Up last year.

“If he wants to win in Formula 1, I think you can’t sit in a nice, cosy midfield team forever,” he said. “I think next year is the perfect chance for him because it’s the new regulations. So both him and Max would be starting from zero.

“Okay, maybe Max knows the team, but it’s not a car that’s necessarily been designed so much around Max. The new regs are going to throw everything wide open.”

But five months later, the former F1 driver is singing a different tune.

Hadjar not only crashed during Barcelona’s behind-closed-doors test while running in the wet, but he also seemed to suffer the worst of Red Bull’s reliability gremlins as testing moved over to Bahrain.

He completed an unconfirmed 327 laps to Verstappen’s 546, with the latter concluding testing with a best time of 1:33.109. Hadjar was over a second down with a 1:34.260.

Palmer reckons as much as Verstappen says he doesn’t like the new cars, they suit his driving style with their lively rear ends, an issue his teammates have often struggled with.

“No, I think I’ve decided now there’s no good time to be Max Verstappen’s teammate,” he told the F1 Nation podcast.

“The logic was there, new regs for everyone.

“But when you actually see how these cars are playing out, Laurent Mekies said it in interviews last week, he said Max, he’s been very outspoken, doesn’t like the cars, but he might be the best-suited driver to the cars.

“And that’s because of the way that you’re putting so much energy through the rear on deceleration. Again, it’s going to destabilise the car. And that is famously what he’s been very good at – controlling a lively rear end, getting all the turn in done with really neat inputs, making sure you’re not sliding too much, but you have a really direct car.

“It’s what his teammates have struggled with. And it’s what Isack’s now got to deal with. So the philosophy with which these cars are sort of naturally tending to go towards, I do think it suits Max pretty well.

“On top of that, Isack had a pretty unlucky run through testing as well. So I think, both weeks he lost a significant amount of time in the car [due to] reliability.”

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