Red Bull told ‘the big question’ Isack Hadjar must answer after they repeated Liam Lawson mistake

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Isack Hadjar has replaced Yuki Tsunoda at Red Bull ahead of only his second season in Formula 1, but Marcin Budkowski is “worried” by the question he now has to answer.

The 21-year-old was one of the surprise packages on the grid in 2025, after Red Bull handed him a late chance to join their sister team Racing Bulls for his debut in F1. Hadjar received his drive at Racing Bulls for 2025 after Red Bull initially replaced Sergio Perez with Liam Lawson.

His F1 career started on the wrong foot after Hadjar crashed out of the Australian Grand Prix on the formation lap in March. But the Parisian overcame the mistake to end the year as the second-highest scoring Red Bull family driver on 51 points – behind Max Verstappen on 421.

Hadjar scored his maiden F1 podium with P3 in the Dutch Grand Prix, too, after also setting his best qualifying result of P4 at Zandvoort. The Frenchman regularly excelled in qualifying, with a total of 16 Q3 appearances while Lawson made just eight after rejoining Racing Bulls.

Does Isack Hadjar have the right mindset for his promotion to Red Bull in 2026?

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Red Bull will only know how well Isack Hadjar will cope when Max Verstappen beats him

Lawson stepped up from Racing Bulls to Red Bull at the start of the 2025 season with just 11 Grand Prix starts on his CV over the two previous years. But Red Bull quickly grew frustrated with Lawson, as he struggled to adapt to the RB21, and sent him back after only two rounds.

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

Former Alpine executive director Budkowski now fears Red Bull have repeated their mistake with Lawson by promoting Hadjar after only one season in Formula 1. Red Bull will also only truly know how well Hadjar will cope with being Verstappen’s teammate when he is beaten.

Budkowski told RacingNews365: “I think he deserves a chance. The only thing I’m worried about [is] he’s talented, he’s fast and he seems mentally strong enough to handle it, but we won’t really know until next year when Max beats him.

“The big question is, isn’t this coming too soon? We’ve seen that Red Bull have a habit of moving drivers up to the main team very quickly. That worked well for Max. It hasn’t really worked well for anyone since, so I think that’s the biggest risk.”

Isack Hadjar must take his qualifying strength to Red Bull to survive being Max Verstappen’s teammate

Will Isack Hadjar suffer the same fate as Pierre Gasly at Red Bull?

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Red Bull promoted Lawson over Tsunoda to replace Perez in December 2024 as they felt the Kiwi had the right mindset to be Verstappen’s teammate. But the 23-year-old struggled with the RB21 and was sent back to Racing Bulls after two rounds at tracks he had never raced at.

Now, Red Bull are pinning their hopes on Hadjar having the mentality to cope with sharing a garage with a four-time F1 champion in Verstappen, who the Milton Keynes outfit have built themselves around ever since Daniel Ricciardo quit the team at the end of the 2018 season.

Hadjar destroyed Lawson in qualifying as Racing Bulls teammates in 2025, but the challenge of sharing a garage with Verstappen at Red Bull will be a much tougher task. Verstappen has dominated every teammate he has had since Ricciardo, and Hadjar will not want to be next.