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Red Bull Racing appear to be one of the teams to beat at this early stage of the 2026 campaign after the first pre-season test in Bahrain.
For years, that has meant rivals having to concentrate fully on Max Verstappen, which is understandable given that he’s won four of the last five drivers’ championships.
Sergio Perez struggled at the end of his time at Red Bull, while Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda didn’t fare much better last year.
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The task of matching Verstappen has now been passed to Isack Hadjar after a very impressive debut campaign with Racing Bulls.
Red Bull still have a lingering concern with Hadjar, but the hope is that arriving at the beginning of a new regulation set will help close the gap between the Frenchman and Verstappen.
That hope might have started to disappear when Red Bull chiefs saw how complicated it is to drive this era of Formula 1 car due to the energy management and new active aerodynamics.
However, journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm has watched Hadjar trackside in Bahrain and believes he’s quickly learning a technique that Verstappen appears to have already perfected.
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Mitchell-Malm was reflecting on F1 testing on The Race’s Patreon and concentrating on Hadjar’s performance, he said: “Hadjar had a bit more movement in the car as well when I was watching at [turns] 10 and 11 with him in it.
“Although I will say, what was quite encouraging from a Hadjar perspective is he didn’t seem to be able to deal with the instability from that downshift and the lower gears and the high revs, as well as Verstappen at the start of the test.
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“But, by the end, and you could see it progressing through stints as well, it felt like he was getting a reasonable handle on how to adjust to that.
“I was quite encouraged that Hadjar’s having a reasonably good integration into the Red Bull.
“So, that might bode quite well for them as well.”
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Although Formula 1 has tripled the amount of testing this year compared to last season, teams will feel they’re already running out of time to perfect their cars ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.
According to De Telegraaf, Hadjar will be in the RB22 on Wednesday and Friday morning, while Verstappen will run the car on Thursday and Friday afternoon.
That gives Hadjar plenty of time to continue perfecting the high-rev technique needed to charge the battery every lap.
Hadjar has been impressed by Verstappen since they started working together and is already targeting his first Grand Prix victory in 2026.
Verstappen hasn’t been beaten by a Red Bull teammate since Perez won the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
That makes Hadjar’s goal incredibly difficult to achieve, but his determination should be admired at this stage of the campaign.
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