Isack Hadjar Signs New Red Bull Deal to Stay Alongside Max Verstappen Through 2027

• Red Bull have extended Isack Hadjar’s contract, confirming he stays as Max Verstappen’s teammate for the 2027 Formula 1 season.
• Hadjar returns to action at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this weekend, his first race back after missing three rounds with a wrist injury.
• Team principal Laurent Mekies praised Hadjar’s composure on and off track and pointed to his rise from Racing Bulls at the start of the year.

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A Second Straight Year in F1’s Hardest Seat

Red Bull have signed Isack Hadjar to a new contract that keeps him alongside Max Verstappen for the 2027 Formula 1 season, the team confirmed on Wednesday.

Hadjar stepped up to Red Bull at the start of this year on the back of an impressive rookie campaign with Racing Bulls in 2025. He has missed the last three grands prix with a wrist injury picked up over the summer break, but he is fit again and returns to the grid this weekend at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, a race moved to a Saturday for the first time in its history.

The Baku race has been moved a day earlier this year, with Sunday, September 27, marking Azerbaijan’s Remembrance Day. That shift means practice runs across Thursday, qualifying lands on Friday, and the grand prix itself is held at midday local time on Saturday, kicking off a triple-header of races to close out the month.

Mekies Points to His Rise From Melbourne

Red Bull’s decision to lock Hadjar in for a second season came together quickly once his form was weighed against the difficulty of the job he holds. Team principal Laurent Mekies did not hold back on what the 21-year-old has shown the team in his short time at the top level.

“We’re very excited to continue our journey with Isack,” Mekies said. “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.”

Mekies traced that back to the way Hadjar folded himself into the operation from his first weeks in the car. “From the very beginning, Isack immersed himself in the team, spending every minute at the factory with his engineers to develop the car, always eager to learn and improve,” he said. “You could see from that first weekend in Melbourne that he handled the step up with remarkable composure and had earned his place in this seat.”

The Grid’s Toughest Seat, Made to Look Ordinary

The second Red Bull seat next to Verstappen has chewed through drivers for years. Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda have all taken a turn in that car and all struggled to match the four-time champion’s pace and consistency, several of them shuffled out within a season.

Hadjar has been the exception. He has run closer to Verstappen than any of his recent predecessors and has beaten his teammate outright on occasion this year, a run of results strong enough that his seat has never come under real scrutiny, injury layoff included.

That injury still forced Red Bull into a reshuffle. Liam Lawson was promoted from Racing Bulls to fill in alongside Verstappen for the three missed rounds, with reserve driver Yuki Tsunoda stepping into Lawson’s seat at the junior team. Lawson made the most of the opportunity, qualifying eighth twice and finishing sixth in Madrid, results that did nothing to change Red Bull’s plan of handing the second seat back to Hadjar the moment he was fit.

Red Bull thanked Lawson in a statement for “his professionalism, dedication and hard work over the past three races,” adding that “stepping in under challenging circumstances, he delivered some impressive performances and made a valuable contribution to the team.” Racing Bulls offered a similar message for Tsunoda, thanking him “for stepping in over the past three races, giving everything for the team and scoring some very valuable points.”

The Gap That Grew While He Was Out

Hadjar’s absence carried a cost in the standings. He trailed McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by 23 points for eighth in the championship at the moment of his injury; that gap has now widened to 49 points. His deficit to Verstappen has grown too, from 38 points after the final race before the summer break in Hungary to 74 points now.

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix opens a triple-header, with races in Malaysia and Singapore following on the next two weekends, giving Hadjar three straight chances to start closing that gap back down as soon as he is back in the car.

Eighth in the Standings Even Through the Injury

Hadjar’s numbers have held up remarkably well for a driver who has spent three race weekends on the sidelines. He remains eighth in the Drivers’ Championship, and his Monaco Grand Prix podium was reinstated after Red Bull and McLaren successfully appealed the overturned speeding penalty that had cost Pierre Gasly his own result from that race. Alpine had originally seen Gasly elevated onto the podium in Hadjar’s place when his pit lane speeding penalty was overturned, only for the counter-appeal to restore the penalty and hand the result back to Hadjar, a reversal Alpine said left them frustrated.

Mekies acknowledged the toll of the enforced absence and called the new deal proof of the team’s confidence heading into 2027. “The period since his injury has been a difficult one for Isack, but this extension is a testament to how much we believe in him and we can’t wait to see him back out on track,” he said. “We still have a lot we want to achieve this season, but it’s a great feeling to know that the drivers, engineers and everyone back at the factory are all heading in the same direction, committed and together.”

Red Bull confirmed Verstappen’s own extension, through the end of 2030, last month. Pairing him with the same teammate for a second straight year is a rarity for the team. The last time it happened was with Sergio Perez, who was dropped at the end of 2024.

The Rest of the 2027 Grid Is Still Taking Shape

Hadjar’s extension locks in another piece of a driver market that is filling out fast for 2027. Mercedes have Kimi Antonelli and George Russell under contract, Ferrari have Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, and McLaren have Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Alpine’s pairing of Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto is set, as is Williams with Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon, and Cadillac with Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas.

That leaves several seats still open heading toward the end of the year. Racing Bulls, Haas, Audi and the second Aston Martin seat alongside Fernando Alonso have yet to be finalised, meaning the driver market will keep moving even as Red Bull’s own lineup is now settled for another season.

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Written by

Jack Renn

Jack Renn is an editor at F1 Chronicle and a veteran motorsport journalist with 25 years of experience covering Formula 1 and international motorsport. A member of the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS), the global body representing accredited sports journalists, Jack has spent his career reporting from paddocks and press rooms across the F1 calendar. His work spans race analysis, technical insight, and in-depth features, giving readers authoritative coverage grounded in decades of firsthand experience at the highest level of the sport.

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