Red Bull urged to do ‘due diligence’ ahead of rumoured Hadjar promotion

Despite being tipped to partner Max Verstappen next season, Red Bull has been urged to do its “due diligence” with Isack Hadjar given the issues the team has with its second seat.

A revelation at Racing Bulls where he is contesting his debut season in Formula 1, Hadjar is arguably the rookie of the campaign with 38 points on the board, 15 of which he scored through a podium at the Dutch Grand Prix.

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His performances have seen him emerge as the frontrunner to partner Verstappen next season, replacing the under-fire Yuki Tsunoda, who is down in 19th place in the Drivers’ Championship with just 12 points in 14 races.

PlanetF1.com understands from well-informed sources that Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has already informed Hadjar that he will be with the senior team next year, although other sources have indicated that conversations are ongoing. An agreement has yet to be officially signed.

Hadjar’s potential promotion has led to questions about whether Red Bull should give him a few races late this season to adjust to the team pre-2026.

Former F1 driver Chandhok believes that could do more harm than good.

“I wouldn’t want it for this year, but I would want it for next year,” he told Sky F1.

“We don’t know [if 2026 will be easier to drive], but what we do know is the current car is clearly very difficult to drive alongside Max.

“I think it’s almost a guarantee if he got shoehorned in there for the last four or five races of the year, he would struggle. You don’t want to do that to him.

“He’s on a confidence high, he’s driving well at the moment.

“You want him to carry that confidence through the winter so when he arrives in 2026 alongside Verstappen – and it’s never going to be easy going alongside Max – but at least with the new regs maybe the style won’t be so bespoke to Max.”

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However, his fellow pundit and three-time W Series champion Jamie Chadwick urged a note of caution before putting Hadjar in the Red Bull F1 car next season.

Noting that the Racing Bulls car is a very different beast to the Red Bull machinery, she urged Red Bull to do its due diligence given the team’s issues with its second seat.

“I think they have to [promote Hadjar] because they’ve got this young driver performing at such a high level,” she said.

“He’s surprised all of us. I think everyone is so happy to see him performing so well. They have to prioritise the main team and put the best driver in that team. So I think there’s an element of inevitability.

“But at the same time, I think behind the scenes they have to do all the due diligence, at least privately.

“Get him in that Red Bull car, do the test, see where he’s at, because there is a discrepancy in performance between the Racing Bulls and performance in the Red Bull and nobody seems to understand that.

“Or put Max in the Racing Bulls in a private test and see why that is. They need to understand that themselves fully to work out what is going wrong in that second seat.”

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