From F1 rookie to Max Verstappen’s teammate: Isack Hadjar’s rapid rise at Red Bull

After an impressive debut season, Isack Hadjar earned one of Formula 1’s toughest seats. With more podiums and a new contract, he is showing why Red Bull took the chance.

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11 Oct 2026 12:43PM

What a difference a year makes. This time last year, we homed in on Isack Hadjar as the rookie to watch among six newcomers, predicting that the French-Algerian Formula One driver, who made his F1 debut with Racing Bulls, had a good chance of being promoted to senior team Red Bull for the 2026 season.

Turns out we were right on the money. The Paris-born racer ended an impressive debut season with a 51-point haul that included a podium finish at the Dutch Grand Prix, making him the youngest French driver to reach an F1 podium, at 21.

The result left Hadjar 12th in the drivers’ standings, ahead of Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda – enough to convince Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies, who succeeded long-serving Christian Horner midway through the season, paving the way for his promotion to Tsunoda’s Red Bull seat for 2026.

Now racing alongside four-time world champion Max Verstappen, Hadjar appears to be proving that decision right.

More importantly, it appears that Hadjar might have broken Red Bull’s so-called “second seat curse” – touch wood. Since Daniel Ricciardo left the team at the end of 2018, there’s been a revolving door of drivers who have struggled to perform up to par as Verstappen’s teammate, from Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon to Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda. 

“It’s been a phenomenal year,” said Hadjar when we met at the Devialet boutique at Grand Hyatt Singapore for an exclusive interview.

The 22-year-old has already claimed two more podium finishes this year, at Monaco and Azerbaijan, with seven race weekends remaining in the 23-round season.

Red Bull also announced last month that Hadjar would remain with the team for the 2027 season.

“It shows the trust they have in me,” said Hadjar, whom motorsport figure Helmut Marko nicknamed “Le Petit Prost” after four-time F1 world champion Alain Prost. 

With more eyes on Red Bull’s senior team, however, Hadjar inevitably faces greater scrutiny. How does he deal with the expectations that come with being Verstappen’s teammate?

“I drive the car very fast and get away from the pressure,” he said, with his signature smirk.

Hadjar has been part of the Red Bull Junior Team since 2022, the company’s development programme for young drivers. For some, the pathway has led through its sister F1 team before a possible promotion to Red Bull Racing.

“It’s the same culture, so it’s not really like changing teams,” he noted.

While adapting to a different team culture may be less of an issue, the pressure to perform remains palpable – particularly given Red Bull’s notorious “second seat curse”. Lawson, after all, was dropped from the senior team after just two races at the start of the 2025 season.

SOUND DECISIONS

The Hadjar seated in front of me was markedly more confident and relaxed than the rookie I had met a year earlier. Being named an ambassador for a luxury audio brand has probably helped too.

“This guy will be an F1 World Champion one day,” Devialet CEO Jacques Demont declared.

Hadjar was announced as the company’s first brand ambassador in April this year, with a two-plus-one-year contract that could extend the partnership to 2028.

“He’s French, we are French, and Isack represents the vision and ambition I have for Devialet,” Demont said.

Drawing further parallels between Hadjar and Devialet, Demont continued: “Isack was a rookie last year and now he’s playing with a superstar (Verstappen) in his second year. This is where we’re going. As a rookie, Isack is a bit of an outsider to Formula One and has ambitions to be the F1 World Champion. We were a very small brand two years ago and we are repositioning the brand and we would also like to be number one.” 

“Music is a huge part of an athlete’s life,” added Hadjar, who is something of an audiophile himself. “It matches what I do in my daily life; it’s about performance and precision, and it’s about sound and being fast. So it’s a very natural partnership that matches my image.”

So what will he be listening to on his Devialet earphones before it’s lights out and away we go at the Singapore Grand Prix tonight?

En route to the circuit, he often listens to bands such as Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Rolling Stones because his “trainer is British”. Once he is in the paddock, he switches to American and French rap to get his heart rate up and hype himself up for the race. 

Unfortunately, the Michael Jackson fan will start from the back of the grid after a gearbox failure prevented him from setting a time in Saturday’s qualifying session. He will now have to “Beat It” past the pack if he is to score points in Singapore tonight.