Isack Hadjar will partner Max Verstappen in 2026 as he enters his sophomore season in F1. He received a promotion from Racing Bulls to Red Bull ahead of the Abu Dhabi GP last year in recognition of his impressive rookie campaign.
The French-Algerian driver scored points in 10 Grands Prix in 2025, including a stunning maiden podium finish at the Dutch GP. He comfortably beat his teammate, bagged 51 points in total, and finished 12th in the drivers’ standings.
Being Verstappen’s teammate is a privilege for Hadjar
Speaking on the Talking Bull podcast, Isack Hadjar opened up about what his sentiments are as he gears up to drive alongside Max Verstappen in the 2026 F1 season. Noting how his single-seater career is still in its emergent stage, he added how it’s a massive privilege to team up with a driver of the Dutchman’s calibre in only his second year in the sport.
“So cool.
“So I’m just 21 years old. I’ve started single seater in 2019. And I get to be teammate with the best driver on the grid. It’s a huge, huge privilege.”
In recent years, Verstappen has garnered quite a reputation for taking rookies under his wing and offering them constructive advice as they navigate the unforgiving world at the pinnacle of motorsport.
Asked if he has had any discussions with the four-time world champion regarding his impending first season with Red Bull, Hadjar responded, “Not yet; ahead of 2026, not really.”
Stating how wonderful Verstappen is as an individual, the one-time podium finisher also remarked that the pre-race drivers’ parades present the best opportunities for initiating meaningful conversations with the 28-year-old.
“I think drivers’ parade is like the right time to go and have good chats with him. But yeah, he’s a very nice dude.”
Verstappen’s qualities that Hadjar admires
In terms of whether he would love to possess any particular trait of Max Verstappen, Isack Hadjar was rather effusive about the many attributes that make the Dutchman such a formidable driver.
The latest driver to inherit the second Red Bull seat referred to the four-time champion’s incredible resurgence in the final third of the 2025 F1 campaign and lauded his perseverance in trying times.
Furthermore, Hadjar highlighted how the 71-time race winner successfully manages to turn up the wick in the final segments of qualifying and emerges victorious in circumstances even when the cards appear to be stacked against him.
Hadjar also surmised that Verstappen’s innate talent and more than a decade of experience in F1 both enable him to draw inspiration from his karting days to tame his Red Bull cars and make the difference on the track.
“It’s like so far this year [2025], why did he finish so close to being world champion? Without the best car?
“Because there’s been races where there’s very tricky conditions and he’s always going to be here. Like when conditions are a bit difficult, he’s there. He always turns up in Q3. He always goes and finds more lap times. If there’s like a single opportunity, if there’s like a scenario out of like 10 million, there’s only one where he’s actually going to win the race, he’s going to win the race.
“You can really feel that once he goes in the car, you can tell there’s like a mix of obviously his natural ability and you can tell that his 11 years of F1 are also paying off. Like he goes in and I just feel like he drives this F1 car like a go-kart. That’s the difference.”
