Jolyon Palmer has already changed his mind about Isack Hadjar’s chances against Max Verstappen

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Jolyon Palmer is already concerned that Isack Hadjar might suffer the same fate as all of Max Verstappen’s other Red Bull teammates after watching pre-season testing in Bahrain.

Red Bull have spent much of pre-season testing playing down their chances once the season starts.

Their new power unit appears to be working better than many people expected, and despite Max Verstappen calling out the sport’s new regulations, he immediately looks up to speed.

Bernie Ecclestone has played down Verstappen’s chances, but Isack Hadjar will be seeing close up for the first time just how impressive the four-time world champion really is.

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Red Bull were testing parts of Hadjar’s car during pre-season running, but the Frenchman seemed to be far more impacted by any reliability issues that the team had than Verstappen.

Jolyon Palmer has been assessing his chances this season and thinks that his hopes of getting close to the Dutchman might be slipping away already.

READ MORE: Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend

Jolyon Palmer says there’s ‘no good time’ to become Max Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate

Last September, Palmer said Hadjar has a better chance than Liam Lawson of succeeding alongside Verstappen due to the introduction of new rules this season.

However, when Palmer was asked on the F1 Nation Podcast if he still thinks this is a good time to become Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate and replied: “No, I think I’ve decided now there’s no good time to be Max Verstappen’s teammate.

“The logic was there, new regs for everyone. But when you actually see how these cars are playing out, Laurent Mekies said it in interviews last week, he said Max, he’s been very outspoken, doesn’t like the cars, but he might be the best-suited driver to the cars.

“And that’s because of the way that you’re putting so much energy through the rear on deceleration. Again, it’s going to destabilise the car. And that is famously what he’s been very good at: controlling a lively rear end, getting all the turn in done with really neat inputs, making sure you’re not sliding too much, but you have a really direct car.

Which driver will be the biggest disappointment of 2026, other than the Aston Martin duo?

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“It’s what his teammates have struggled with. And it’s what Isack’s now got to deal with. So the philosophy with which these cars are sort of naturally tending to go towards, I do think it suits Max pretty well.

“On top of that, Isack had a pretty unlucky run through testing as well. So I think, both weeks he lost a significant amount of time in the car [due to] reliability.”

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

Isack Hadjar should get more time at Red Bull due to Helmut Marko’s exit

For 20 years, underperforming Red Bull drivers have had to deal with the wrath of Helmut Marko when they weren’t meeting Verstappen’s extraordinary standards.

Marko left Red Bull at the end of last season, and it will be interesting to see how they change the team’s approach to their driver line-ups if any of the quartet on the grid don’t meet their required standards.

Journalist Tom Clarkson was speaking to Palmer about Hadjar’s start to 2026 at Red Bull and said: “Right at the very beginning, at that Barcelona shakedown, he put it into the wall exiting the final corner.

“So, some of it’s been self-inflicted. And I just find myself looking back to when Pierre Gasly crashed during pre-season testing as a new Red Bull recruit in 2019.

“And he never really recovered from that. But Helmut Marko is no longer in the team. So I think there might be a little bit less pressure on the young guys now.”

Pierre Gasly lasted just 12 races at Red Bull before being replaced by Alex Albon.

Marko went over Christian Horner’s head to drop Gasly, and Palmer then spoke about Daniil Kvyat’s early test with Red Bull in Jerez, when he was forced to do 20 laps without a front wing due to an early crash.

Hadjar will hope that he’s capable of putting in enough strong performances to avoid his future being a topic of discussion in the paddock.

Otherwise, with the driver market expected to pick up again this year, plenty of his rivals might start to put their names forward to potentially replace him.