James Hinchcliffe tells Isack Hadjar why Adrian Newey’s Red Bull exit could actually help him

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Isack Hadjar is walking into a very different Red Bull team in 2026 than his predecessor did in the past few years.

The second Red Bull seat has become something of a curse, with no driver being able to extract the best from the car like Max Verstappen. This, inevitably, ended in their dismissal, and Hadjar is the next to take the plunge into the team.

However, the environment is completely different, following a mass exodus of key figures in the past couple of years. Adrian Newey, Jonathan Wheatley, Christian Horner and Helmut Marko are just a few to have left Red Bull since 2025.

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Marko was Hadjar’s biggest admirer and pushed heavily to get him into the team for 2026. His time in Milton Keynes has not got off to the best start, as Hadjar crashed on day two of testing in Barcelona.

There is a lot of pressure on Red Bull in 2026 as they introduce their in-house power unit for the new regulations. Given all the notable departures behind the scenes, many have cast doubt about their performance.

Newey was the heaviest departure, given the success he brought to the technical department and how he mastered regulation changes. But his switch to Aston Martin could actually work in Hadjar’s favour.

James Hinchcliffe thinks Adrian Newey’s exit might help Isack Hadjar adapt to Red Bull’s car

Speaking on The Red Flags Podcast, pundit James Hinchcliffe discussed how Hadjar could become the ‘new’ Verstappen: “There’s no heroes without villains,” he said.

“Yeah, I don’t know man, maybe Hadjar can step into that role, maybe he can be the new Max. He’s still on the team that’s got the reputation, we know he’s got a bit of fire to him, that could happen. We don’t know what Lindblad’s like yet.”

Asked if Hadjar could break the Red Bull second seat curse, he pointed out how Newey’s way of working and building the cars was not focused on the drivers’ feelings. A change of mentality might actually work in the Frenchman’s favour.

“There’s so many variables to that, it’s so hard to know,” Hinchcliffe added. “Because, yes, it’s a new ruleset, right? But Red Bull’s gone through several rule sets and the Verstappen/teammate relationship has kind of been the same throughout them, right?

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“But it’s the first one that’s not Newey-inspired, so is there something to that? Is there something the way that Adrian designs cars that are just that much trickier to drive?

“DC’s (David Coulthard) telling is like, he doesn’t really care about the drivers’ feelings. This is the fastest way to build a car, you figure out how to drive it, that’s your job. My job is to build the fastest car, your job is to drive it as quick as possible.

“So, without that mentality, if they’re going to try to build a car that’s a little more forgiving, maybe more all-rounding, give up a little bit of pure pace for a little bit of drivability, that could play into Hadjar’s benefit.

“That could play into his hand and make him look like: ‘Oh, I’m the guy who closed the gap to Max’, that might be the moral of the story.”

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

James Hinchcliffe warns Max Verstappen could pull further away from his rivals in 2026

Hadjar backs himself to fight for the championship in 2026, but he will have a huge mountain to climb to beat his teammate, Verstappen. After all, no driver has come close to him since Daniel Ricciardo left Red Bull in 2019.

Hinchcliffe has even warned that the Dutchman could pull further away from his rivals with the new regulations, as his ability to manage energy is something that no one else can do on the grid.

“Obviously, he’s phenomenally talented, and with a complete new ruleset, it’s as good a chance as anyone has,” he said.

“But you read all the stuff now about what’s going to make the real difference behind the wheel in this new reg set, and it’s that extra bandwidth, that extra capacity to manage energy and all the rest of it.

“And I’m sorry guys, there’s nobody on the grid that has more bandwidth in hand than Verstappen. So, there’s a chance he’s actually going to be even higher than everybody, the gap’s going to even grow to the rest of the field.”