Verstappen reveals who he ‘hopes’ will succeed him as Red Bull’s leading driver

Max Verstappen believes Isack Hadjar is the driver who could replace him as Red Bull’s number one driver when he eventually calls time on his F1 career.

Hadjar joined Red Bull this season after a year with Racing Bulls, and has twice featured on the podium and helped Verstappen secure the team’s first double podium since 2014 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen has his Red Bull successor in mind

The second race seat alongside Verstappen at Red Bull has been a cursed job since Daniel Ricciardo left the team at the end of the 2018 season.

Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda have all had a turn, but failed to come close to matching Verstappen’s success.

Only Perez won a Grand Prix with Red Bull, while Alex Albon can at least say he managed two podium finishes.

Now it is Hadjar’s turn.

The Frenchman has two top-three results in his 14 starts with Red Bull, became the first driver since Perez to out-qualify Verstappen on merit at the Japanese Grand Prix, and has qualified inside the top ten for every Grand Prix bar Singapore when his RB22 suffered reliability issues.

The 22-year-old has been the closest teammate to Verstappen since Perez’s penultimate season with Red Bull.

It has earned him a second season with Red Bull, with team principal Laurent Mekies announcing last month: “Since joining us at the start of the year, he has been superb on and off track, especially considering this is only his second Formula 1 season, which made extending his contract an easy decision.”

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Hadjar will continue racing alongside Verstappen in F1 2027, and potentially even beyond, with the four-time world champion signing a new extension through to the end of the 2030 championship.

Verstappen believes Hadjar is the driver who could replace him as Red Bull’s number one driver when he eventually retires.

“Isack, he’s still a very young guy,” he told Canal+.

“He’s been a part of the Red Bull programme for a while now. Even when he was still not racing in Formula 1, he’s been around to some of the races, listening in and following.

“So, I slowly start to feel a little bit old having a younger teammate by quite a few years.

“But that’s a normal process, and that’s also what, as a team, you should be looking for, right?

“I’m not going to race forever, and at one point you need new talent coming into the team to try and take over at one point.

“That’s always been a little bit the way that Red Bull works, finding new talent, and I think that will continue for a long time.

“As a teammate, he has been great. He’s just getting started, but it has been really nice.”

Asked outright if Hadjar could be the driver who ‘could take over after yourself’, the 29-year-old replied: “That’s what I hope.

“As I said, I’m not racing here forever.

“He has a few years on me, so hopefully he can stay around for a bit longer.”

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