Isack Hadjar’s Red Bull promotion fears should be allayed after Liam Lawson’s latest comments

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The future of Red Bull and Racing Bulls’ driver line-ups for the 2026 Formula 1 season is far from sorted.

Only Max Verstappen is currently contracted beyond this season among the quartet of Red Bull-backed drivers.

Yuki Tsunoda is fighting to survive alongside him, while Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar are yet to discover their respective fates.

New Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has backed Tsunoda in the short term, but whether that’s enough to earn him a contract for 2026 is yet to be seen.

Hadjar is Red Bull’s favoured Tsunoda replacement if the Japanese driver is let go at the end of the current campaign.

However, Hadjar said in an interview leading up to the Canadian Grand Prix, as quoted by Formula 1’s official website, that a promotion to Red Bull would be ‘scary’.

He said: “It’s a bit scary. I wouldn’t feel ready. I’m just nine races in and it looks to be complicated when you look at Yuki and Liam, who are very quality drivers, so no, I’m not very ready – but I would always be up for the call that’s for sure.”

Lawson’s latest admission about Red Bull should allay Hadjar’s fears, even if he only lasted two races with the team before he was replaced.

Liam Lawson says Red Bull and Racing Bulls are ‘very similar’ amid Isack Hadjar promotion rumours

Lawson was being interviewed by RACER about his time with Red Bull, and he explained: “That’s the thing, at the same time I didn’t really leave for very long, so it didn’t feel like a big transition.

“It’s more getting used to driving a car that’s different than the one I’d been preparing to drive all season.

“And I guess fortunately because I only did a couple of races in the other car, it wasn’t too difficult to adapt to. But the people are very similar – it’s the same people that I’ve been working with the last few years. And in general on both sides of the team, as a reserve I was spending lots of time with Red Bull anyway, so I have quite a good relationship.

“I would say I have a good understanding of both teams, between which one I’m driving, it’s not so different. It’s more just about the car that I’m driving and trying to drive it as fast as I can.”

Lawson may not have had the full support of Christian Horner during his short time with Red Bull, but appears to be far happier at Racing Bulls.

Racing Bulls insiders have noticed a change in Lawson behind the scenes, and it would be interesting to see how Hadjar adapts to a similar move if it happens next season.

Alan Permane backs Liam Lawson’s ‘great job’ since Red Bull Racing demotion

Amid all of the changes at Red Bull and Racing Bulls in the past few months since Horner’s exit, Alan Permane has stepped up into Mekies’ team principal role at the Faenza-based team.

Permane explained why he’s been so impressed with Lawson, especially in the past few races where he’s started to close the gap to Hadjar in the drivers’ championship: “He’s done a great job, honestly.

“Two races at Red Bull, obviously, were very tough for him. He won’t thank me for saying this, but he definitely was a bit downbeat. He didn’t have a spring in his step, and we’ve done what we can to help him there.

“To jump in our car straight away without having tested it was, of course, not easy.

“He’s up against Isack [Hadjar] who has been outstanding this year. He’s worked hard. He and his engineering team have worked really, really hard.

“We had a bit of a breakthrough in Austria. We had a new front suspension for him, which they developed through the simulator, and he really liked it, was really enthusiastic about it, and it worked there.

“We saw in Spa again, he’s performing. You could see after that race… Monaco was a decent race for him, but Austria, he had a spring back in his step.”

Red Bull have never re-promoted a driver from their second team once they’ve been dropped, meaning Hadjar is still more likely to replace Tsunoda than Lawson next year.

However, the New Zealander will know that the next 10 races present an opportunity to do something unprecedented within the Red Bull camp.

If he doesn’t, then he’s just given Hadjar the confidence boost he needs to know he’s good enough to make the step up if and when the time comes.