Isack Hadjar has just shown why Red Bull made the perfect choice to pair him with Max Verstappen

Follow us on Google Discover

Isack Hadjar has just completed his first few laps as an official Red Bull Formula 1 driver in their all-new 2026 car.

The Frenchman has been thrown in at the deep end after just one season at Racing Bulls, where he finished 12th in the drivers’ championship.

Now he’s tasked with being Max Verstappen’s teammate – possibly the most difficult job anyone in Formula 1 has, for the next 12 months at the very least.

But, Red Bull have a lot of belief in Hadjar and with good reason. He has a lot of speed, and consistency appears to be one of his strengths, too. Now he just needs a little time to develop.

How many podiums and wins will Isack Hadjar achieve in his first season as a Red Bull driver?

Comment

Like or Comment

Have your say Sign-in now for free

Hadjar is among the ‘very best’ according to team principal Laurent Mekies, who has worked quite closely with the 21-year-old at two different teams.

Asked at the Autosport Awards about 2026, Hadjar made a ‘bold’ prediction, backing himself to be in championship contention. It sounds optimistic, but it might be realistic.

READ MORE: Isack Hadjar disagrees with Liam Lawson about being Max Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate

Isack Hadjar has proven he’s the perfect teammate for Max Verstappen after one session

Red Bull are worried about their reliability as they head to testing with their own power unit for the first time ever.

The last time they entered a season with such questions about what was powering them came in 2019, when they switched to Honda.

That worked out well for them, and the start of a new partnership with Ford seems to have been strong as well.

On the first morning of pre-season testing in Barcelona – a private outing for all 11 teams, Hadjar topped the timesheets by a long way.

With a time of 1.18:835, he was 1.865 seconds faster than Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli in second place. He also racked up 41 laps, third most of the seven teams running.

So speed and reliability seem to be in order, and Hadjar, with the added pressure of being Verstappen’s teammate now, has started well.

He’s already proving to Red Bull that he was the perfect choice to be their second driver in 2026 and is wasting no time in making a strong impression.

READ MORE: F1 fans are all saying the same thing as Red Bull launch their new livery for the 2026 season

How did Red Bull’s rivals fare during the first session of the 2026 F1 season?

The two slowest of the teams during Monday morning’s running were Audi and Cadillac, but credit to them for getting their cars ready to run, completing more than 25 laps in the process.

They were both more than five seconds slower than the fastest time set by Hadjar, but so too were Haas, courtesy of Esteban Ocon.

Franco Colapinto being third for Alpine, despite setting fewer laps than anyone else, is a slight surprise. He caused the first red flag of the year a few hours into the morning.

Shortly after, Gabriel Bortoleto stopped on track, creating a second stoppage, before Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls car also stopped as the clock struck 1pm in Barcelona.