David Coulthard heard one Isack Hadjar radio message Helmut Marko will ‘love’ at the Las Vegas GP

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Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar appears set to be promoted to Red Bull Racing for the 2026 season after impressing Formula 1 fans around the world during his rookie season.

Isack Hadjar added his name to the list of drivers who have scored podiums in their debut seasons at the Dutch Grand Prix, and currently sits in the top 10 of the drivers’ championship.

The Las Vegas Grand Prix was another strong showing from Hadjar, as although he was outqualified by Racing Bulls teammate Liam Lawson, he eventually came home in sixth.

Hadjar is the frontrunner to be Max Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate next season, although team principal Laurent Mekies insists that no decision has been made yet.

The 21-year-old was racing in Las Vegas for the first time, and avoided the pitfalls that his fellow rookies fell into.

Gabriel Bortoleto and Liam Lawson both caused collisions going into the first corner, and Andrea Kimi Antonelli failed to progress beyond Q1.

David Coulthard then spotted a moment during Sunday’s race from Hadjar that would have caught Helmut Marko’s attention as he decides what to do with Red Bull’s 2026 line-up.

READ MORE: Who is Racing Bulls 2025 F1 driver Isack Hadjar? Everything you need to know

Helmut Marko would have loved Isack Hadjar asking to be ‘aggressive’ at the Las Vegas Grand Prix

Hadjar was racing against Carlos Sainz before his first and only pit stop in Las Vegas on lap 11.

He said on the team radio: ‘Let’s make sure to be aggressive guys, OK?”

His race engineer responded and said: “Copy, loud and clear. We are monitoring a group of six slow cars. So, we have to be careful not to pit into them.”

Speaking on commentary for Channel 4, Palmer said: “Give me a two-stop! That’s what Isack Hadjar’s saying. I want to undercut the car ahead. Carlos Sainz, very much in his race here now.”

Hadjar had Oscar Piastri sitting just behind him, but forced a mistake out of the championship contender, dropping him into the clutches of Charles Leclerc and relieving some of the pressure he had been under.

Coulthard continued: “I tell you who will love that kind of mentality is Dr Helmut Marko, as they look at whether Hadjar is someone they should promote into the senior team.

“He’ll love that kind of fighting spirit.”

READ MORE: All to know about Racing Bulls from team principal to Red Bull affiliation

Isack Hadjar laments ‘too conservative’ tyre management call after the Las Vegas Grand Prix

Hadjar was involved in some great battles in Las Vegas, and Red Bull would have been encouraged to see him going toe-to-toe with Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc at times.

They’re the sort of drivers Red Bull will hope Hadjar is racing against next year if promoted, with Yuki Tsunoda only able to recover to P12 from the pit lane.

Speaking in his official post-race media session, Hadjar said: “I’m happy about our race today as I feel like we extracted everything we could.

“We were going into the unknown a little bit, as we hadn’t had any long runs in practice. We were probably a bit too conservative on the tyre management as we were expecting more graining before the start, when in the end it was a full push race.

“I’m proud of the team for the job we’ve done here in Vegas, and I think it’s been our best weekend of the year. We didn’t make any mistakes from FP1 and ticked all the boxes we had to, so it’s nice to be rewarded with four points.

“I’m now confident going into the last two races of the year in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, which are tracks that I think will suit our car better.”

Racing Bulls go into the final two race weekends of the season with a 17-point advantage over Haas, who are one point better off than Aston Martin.

Securing P6 in the constructors’ championship would be a brilliant result and earn the team millions in additional prize money, and continue to improve Hadjar’s burgeoning reputation.