Isack Hadjar on Joining Max Verstappen at Red Bull: ‘What the Hell Am I Doing Here?’

• Isack Hadjar partnered Max Verstappen at Red Bull for 2026 after a rookie 2025 season with Racing Bulls in which he scored 51 points, finished 12th and took a maiden podium at the Dutch Grand Prix.
• In his first interview as a Red Bull driver he admitted moments of disbelief, saying he sometimes thinks, “What the hell am I doing here?”
• Team principal Laurent Mekies has said Hadjar is doing “everything right” and that the team must shield him from external pressure.

Isack Hadjar stepped up to Red Bull for the 2026 season to partner Max Verstappen, taking on one of the most closely watched seats in Formula 1. The French-Algerian driver was promoted from Red Bull’s sister team after a single season in the sport, and he has been notably honest about how the move has felt.

Asked whether the step up had sunk in, Hadjar did not reach for a rehearsed answer. He described a mix of excitement and disbelief at finding himself alongside a four-time world champion so early in his career.

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From Racing Bulls to Verstappen’s teammate

Hadjar earned his promotion with a strong rookie campaign in 2025. Driving for Racing Bulls, Red Bull’s junior team, he finished the year 12th in the drivers’ standings with 51 points and took his maiden Formula 1 podium at the Dutch Grand Prix.

For 2026 he replaced Yuki Tsunoda in the senior team, with Tsunoda moving into a test and reserve role. Those who worked with Hadjar highlighted his ability to get up to speed quickly on unfamiliar circuits and in new machinery, a trait that contributed to Red Bull’s decision to promote him rather than wait.

“What the hell am I doing here?”

In his first interview as a Red Bull driver, Hadjar described the surreal nature of the step up. “There are moments where I do realise what’s happening and I’m up for the challenge,” he said, “and sometimes like, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’”

He has also been open about the pressure. Hadjar admitted he felt very stressed at the start of the year, in part because of his limited Formula 1 mileage, but said he settled into the rhythm of race weekends and that the experience did not turn out to be as difficult as he had initially feared.

A seat with a difficult recent history

The second Red Bull seat has a well-documented record of unsettling the drivers who fill it alongside Verstappen. Pierre Gasly was moved back to the junior team partway through 2019. Alexander Albon lost the drive at the end of 2020. Sergio Perez departed after the 2024 season. Liam Lawson was given the seat for 2025 and replaced after only two rounds.

That history is part of why Hadjar’s promotion drew so much attention. The questions around him were less about outright speed and more about whether he could handle an environment that has proved demanding for more experienced drivers.

Mekies on managing the rookie

Team principal Laurent Mekies has spoken carefully about his young driver. He said the team is “very strongly behind him, trying to unlock what can be unlocked,” and expressed confidence that Hadjar “will be able to show his true value in the near future.”

Mekies has also said Hadjar is doing “everything right” and that part of the team’s job is to shield him from external pressure. On where the rookie needs to develop, Red Bull has framed it around composure, saying he has to control his emotions, with the internal reminder that the steering wheel has no fault when things go wrong.

A demanding season to learn in

Hadjar has arrived during a major rules reset. The 2026 regulations overhauled the cars, with new aerodynamics, new power units and revised design concepts, which in principle gives teammates a more level starting point than in a settled era.

The difficulty is that Red Bull has not been at the front in 2026. The team has struggled for results, and Verstappen’s first podium of the season came in Canada, an indication of how far the squad has fallen from its dominant years. Learning the second Red Bull seat alongside a four-time champion, in a car that is not winning, is the task in front of Hadjar for the rest of the campaign.

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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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