Isack Hadjar told he’s done something that ‘won’t be tolerated’ next to Max Verstappen at Red Bull

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Isack Hadjar will replace Yuki Tsunoda at Red Bull in the 2026 Formula 1 season, as he becomes the latest driver to take the challenge of being Max Verstappen’s teammate.

The Milton Keynes squad have churned through Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson and now Tsunoda since Daniel Ricciardo decided to leave Red Bull at the end of the 2018 F1 season. Hadjar will also graduate to Red Bull for only his second season on the grid.

Red Bull placed Hadjar next to Tsunoda at Racing Bulls for the 2025 season as a late fix after deciding to replace Perez with Lawson last December. But the 20-year-old has shone since he moved up from F2, with only Verstappen scoring more points among the Red Bull family.

Hadjar sits 10th in the F1 drivers’ championship ahead of his final race for Racing Bulls in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Frenchman has 51 points, while Verstappen has 396. Lawson has earned 38 points and Tsunoda has scored 30 of his 33 since they traded places this March.

Red Bull ‘will not tolerate’ Isack Hadjar ‘exploding’ with emotion in 2026

Racing Bulls also celebrated as Hadjar took his maiden F1 podium with P3 in the Dutch GP at Zandvoort, where he also set his best qualifying result of P4. But while Hadjar has impressed Anthony Davidson during his rookie campaign in F1, his emotional outbursts are concerning.

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

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The ex-Super Aguri driver believes Red Bull will not tolerate how Hadjar can “explode” when his emotions take over once he replaces Tsunoda as Verstappen’s teammate. It is not a new issue, either, as Helmut Marko warned Hadjar about his emotions prior to his rookie season.

Davidson said on Sky Sports F1 (5/12, 14:53): “He’s definitely more edgy than Alain Prost. [There is] definitely more of an edge to him in how cutting he can be, and how kind of emotional he can be. Prost was the professor.

“I think he’s going to have to learn how to not explode. He’s going to have to work on that, I think, going up against Max next year in the Red Bull team.

“We’ve seen he’s driven a brilliant season this year. But there have been many moments from this season where things haven’t gone his way, and he absolutely erupted inside the car. That won’t be tolerated inside the team of Red Bull.”

Isack Hadjar would be ‘naive’ to think the 2026 F1 regulations will let him fight Max Verstappen

Hadjar has admitted that he will likely start the 2026 F1 season and his career with Red Bull behind Verstappen, given the Dutchman has “stomped on” so many drivers during the past few years. But Hadjar sees the 2026 F1 regulations as a source of optimism for his chances.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about the 2026 F1 engine and aero regulations

F1 will introduce arguably its biggest ever regulations overhaul next year, with new engine regulations featuring 50/50 electrical and combustion power also necessitating changes to the aerodynamic regulations. F1 will introduce active aero for the first time ever next year.

But while Martin Brundle thinks Hadjar has “the right character” for Red Bull, Davidson has also shared his concern that the Parisian would be “naive” to think the 2026 F1 regulations alone will be enough for him to rise up from Racing Bulls and push Verstappen to his limits.

Davidson added: “It’s not just this set of regulations, let’s be honest, where Max has destroyed every teammate he’s had.

“If you think back to pre-2022, when he had teammates like Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon, drivers like that, a really high calibre in a completely different generation of F1 car. And he did the same to them as he’s doing to the current crop.

“So, it’s maybe a little bit naive of Isack Hadjar to think that, just because the regulations [are] changing, that’s going to give him an equal footing, and therefore I’m going to take the fight to the four-, maybe five-time world champion by that point.

“So, let’s see how he does. But it’s going to be a thinking drivers’ championship next year, with those cars, with the way that you have to think your way around the energy management. Max is going to be all over it.”