{"id":169873,"date":"2025-09-26T07:26:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T07:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/169873\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T07:26:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T07:26:16","slug":"red-bull-delivers-new-hint-of-who-could-partner-max-verstappen-in-f1-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/169873\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull delivers new hint of who could partner Max Verstappen in F1 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Bull<\/a> senior advisor Helmut Marko has hinted that Isack Hadjar could be in line to secure the second seat alongside Max Verstappen<\/a> in Formula 1<\/a> in the near future.<\/p>\n

The French rookie has been the subject of longstanding speculation that he will be promoted from the team\u2019s satellite squad Racing Bulls after an impressive debut season.<\/p>\n

Hadjar is currently ninth in the Drivers\u2019 Championship<\/a> with a total of 38 points, having recently secured his maiden podium at the Dutch Grand Prix last month.<\/p>\n

Naturally, Hadjar\u2019s name has been frequently dropped into the debate as to who might fill the second Red Bull seat next season, with the team struggling to find stability in it this year.<\/p>\n

With Hadjar\u2019s team-mate Liam Lawson originally beginning the season in it, Yuki Tsunoda replaced him after just two races, but the Japanese has also struggled.<\/p>\n

And as the 20-year-old\u2019s stock continues to rise, the likelihood of him occupying the role as Verstappen\u2019s team-mate next year rises with it.<\/p>\n

Marko intimated that Hadjar has all the attributes to warrant the position, telling Kleine Zeitung that he is a \u201creally fast guy\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe certainly has the mental strength to hold his own against Verstappen,\u201d the Austrian said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe also doesn\u2019t make mistakes, which is really surprising for a new driver. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe improves on every track and is fully involved after a few laps, regardless of whether he\u2019s driven there before. He\u2019s a really fast guy coming along.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HelmutHelmut Marko has continued to speak highly of Isack Hadjar, who could secure a Red Bull seat alongside Max Verstappen next year<\/p>\n

Marko says Red Bull keen to \u2018stick with our driver pool\u2019 for F1 2026<\/p>\n

Red Bull is of course known for promoting its junior drivers from the \u2018B-team\u2019 to the full outfit, with Verstappen himself being an alumni of Racing Bulls, then known as Toro Rosso.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only exception in recent years has been Sergio Perez, who spent four seasons as Verstappen\u2019s team-mate until this year, when he was fired in favour of Lawson.<\/p>\n

Red Bull\u2019s revolving door of talent continues to turn, with Campos\u2019 Formula 2 driver Arvid Lindblad the latest, the 17-year-old having been handed his first Super Licence a year early.<\/p>\n

Marko confirmed that its Red Bull\u2019s plans to continue in his vein for next year, but admitted if an outside driver was to become available, it would be churlish not to consider it.<\/p>\n

\u201cFundamentally, we want to stick with our driver pool when it comes to the cockpits for 2026,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a super talent emerges [from another team], we won\u2019t turn a blind eye, of course, but that\u2019s not the case at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2013 Max Verstappen snubs Lewis Hamilton in F1 grid\u2019s best traits<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko has hinted that Isack Hadjar could be in line to secure the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,817,75926,825,806,805,803,804,15196,85],"class_list":["post-169873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-marko","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-redbull","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}