Red Bull told ‘they have to’ promote Isack Hajdar - with one caveat

Red Bull have been told to promote Isack Hadjar for F1 2026, as long as they do all the necessary “due diligence”.

Hadjar appears to be on course for promotion to Red Bull for 2026 after impressing during his rookie F1 campaign for sister team Racing Bulls.

The 20-year-old Frenchman claimed a stunning first F1 podium at the Dutch Grand Prix and has outscored current Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda, who has only managed nine points and sits 19th in the championship standings.

With Tsunoda’s struggles in the RB21 continuing with seemingly no improvement in sight, Hadjar looks set to take his seat and become Max Verstappen’s next teammate.

But Red Bull have been warned that they need to properly prepare Hadjar for the step up to avoid ongoing problems in their second car.

“I think they have to [promote Hadjar] because they’ve got this young driver performing at such a high level,” three-time W Series champion Jamie Chadwick told Sky Sports F1.

“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.”

Does Isack Hadjar even want Red Bull drive?

Fellow Sky F1 pundit and former driver Karun Chandhok advised Red Bull not to promote Hadjar too early and risk affecting his confidence.

“I wouldn’t want it for this year, but I would want it for next year,” Chandhok said. “We don’t know [if 2026 will be better] 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 and 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.”

Hadjar attempted to shut down the speculation with a blunt response to the rumours ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

“I think it’s very funny, because I didn’t sign anything,” Hadjar said with a smile.