Isack Hadjar admits Red Bull move has been ‘painful’ after they focused on Max Verstappen title bid

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Isack Hadjar admits his move to Red Bull in 2026 has been “a bit painful” as their focus on Max Verstappen’s unsuccessful 2025 title bid limited the development of the RB22.

Red Bull promoted Hadjar from their sister squad, Racing Bulls, for the 2026 F1 season, after deciding to demote Yuki Tsunoda to a reserve driver role. Hadjar only got his debut last year, but the 21-year-old quickly dazzled the Red Bull bosses – especially with his qualifying pace.

Hadjar seemed to adapt well to his new life as a Red Bull driver in the first qualifying session of 2026, too. While Verstappen crashed during qualifying in Australia, Hadjar secured P3 on the grid as the best non-Mercedes driver. But Hadjar’s performance in Q3 was a red herring.

Verstappen led Red Bull’s qualifying hopes in China but only sealed P8, and Hadjar qualified P8 in Japan. Hadjar’s fastest qualifying laps in Australia and Japan were even 0.785s and 1.2 seconds slower than the pole position times, while Verstappen was 0.938s off pole in China.

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Isack Hadjar admits Red Bull focusing on Max Verstappen’s 2025 title bid ‘delayed’ their 2026 car

Even Alpine driver Pierre Gasly out-qualified both Red Bull racers in China and Japan, where Verstappen also failed to reach Q3. Gasly also finished in front of the pair during the Grands Prix in China and Japan, to put Alpine above Red Bull in the F1 constructors’ championship.

READ MORE: Who is 2026 Red Bull F1 driver Isack Hadjar? Everything you need to know

Haas also scored more points (18) than Red Bull (16) did during the first three rounds of the year. Verstappen called his Red Bull “undriveable” in Japan, too, while Hadjar branded their chassis “terrible”. The RB22 has extreme balance problems, with understeer and oversteer.

Hadjar now concedes that Red Bull are paying the price for trying to see Verstappen win the 2025 drivers’ title until the last minute. He admits their continued development of the RB21 meant Red Bull could not invest as much in the 2026 F1 regulations as their rival teams did.

“That [scoring a podium] is the end target, for sure,” Hadjar told RACER. “Red Bull are a top team. We have top people in the team, and I think we should.

“Considering how obviously everyone pushed to fight for the title last year very late into the season, it’s no news that it delayed a bit the development for the ‘26 regulations. But I think our ramp-up can only be the quickest out of every team. That’s the goal.

“We didn’t have a car that’s fighting for podiums [in the first three rounds]. I don’t think it’s far off. I think it’s realistic, and that’s what we are going to try and achieve.

“So, obviously, it’s a bit painful at the moment, but the best thing we can do is work in the right direction and understand the direction we’re taking, and understand why the car is working a lot better when it’s going to work better.”

F1 is back but which team will have made the biggest step forward since Japan?

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Mercedes bet heavily on F1’s 2026 regulations early on, after writing off the final year of the ground-effect era, and are now leading the field as a result. Ferrari even stopped developing their 2025 car last April, and McLaren made the 2026 F1 regulations their priority from July.

Laurent Mekies, however, pushed through further upgrades for the Red Bull RB21 after he replaced Christian Horner as their team principal last July. Mekies’ decision saw Verstappen come within a meagre two points of completing the greatest title comeback in F1’s history.

Verstappen trailed Oscar Piastri atop the drivers’ standings by 104 points through 15 rounds last year. Yet he outscored the Australian during each of the final nine rounds thanks to Red Bull’s updates in search of a fifth consecutive title, but still finished just shy of Lando Norris.

Ultimately, speaking in December, Mekies admitted that focusing on Verstappen’s 2025 title bid “might have a cost” with Red Bull’s 2026 car – which Hadjar now believes has proven to be the case. It also remains to be seen how long it takes Red Bull to score a podium in 2026.