{"id":814705,"date":"2026-07-21T16:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/814705\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T16:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:28:09","slug":"isack-hadjar-hailed-as-one-of-the-men-of-the-year-after-max-verstappen-red-bull-breakthrough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/814705\/","title":{"rendered":"Isack Hadjar hailed as ‘one of the men of the year’ after Max Verstappen Red Bull breakthrough"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isack Hadjar<\/a> is \u201cone of the men of the year\u201d, according to Timo Glock, who believes the Frenchman has embraced the challenge of partnering Max Verstappen at Red Bull<\/a> without fear.<\/p>\n

Verstappen has, in part, his teammate to thank for his podium result at the Belgian Grand Prix after Hadjar\u2019s tow put him on the front of the Spa-Francorchamps grid.<\/p>\n

Timo Glock praises Isack Hadjar\u2019s Red Bull impact alongside Max Verstappen<\/p>\n

Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google<\/a> to your favourites list for news you can trust.<\/p>\n

Hadjar<\/a> was announced as Verstappen teammate for the F1 2026 season, the four-time world champion\u2019s third teammate since Sergio Perez\u2019s left Red Bull 12 months prior.<\/p>\n

Joining Red Bull after just one season with Racing Bulls, Hadjar said upon his confirmation: \u201cIt\u2019s a fantastic thing, I can\u2019t wait to work with the best and learn from Max.\u201d<\/p>\n

After several seasons of Verstappen leading Red Bull\u2019s charge, Hadjar qualified third at the season-opening Australian GP where Verstappen crashed in Q1. The Frenchman\u2019s race ended with an engine failure, but Hadjar had already signalled himself as someone who could, if not beat, pick up the pieces when Verstappen faltered.<\/p>\n

He has since gone on to score seven times in 10 Grand Prix, became the first teammate to outqualify Verstappen on merit at the British Grand Prix, and \u2018gifted\u2019 his teammate P2<\/a> on the grid at Spa.<\/p>\n

Facing a back-of-the-grid start in Belgium due to engine penalties, Hadjar\u2019s tow gave Verstappen a 0.4s boost, elevating him from what would\u2019ve been sixth on the grid to second.<\/p>\n

While Verstappen turned that into a podium result, crossing the line in third place, Hadjar raced from 21st on the grid to sixth at the chequered flag.<\/p>\n

He lost out on the fan voted \u2018Driver of the Day\u2019 to Charles Leclerc, who was second at Spa, but former F1 driver Glock reckons Hadjar deserves to be in the running for driver of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, he is one of the men of the year,\u201d he told Sky Deutschland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we look back, everyone is looking at Max Verstappen. And he stands there and says: \u2018No, I\u2019m up for the challenge and I\u2019m going to do it\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe shows that more and more weekend after weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is partly on par with Max Verstappen and the race pace was outstanding. Absolutely top weekend for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen v Isack Hadjar: Red Bul F1 2026 scores<\/p>\n

F1 2026: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between teammates<\/a><\/p>\n

F1 2026: Head-to-head race statistics between teammates<\/a><\/p>\n

Hadjar put in an epic performance at Spa on Sunday, as he made two pit stops in two laps to swap his hard tyres for medium Pirellis and then back in to swap the mediums for a set of hard tyres.<\/p>\n

Hadjar went on to complete what was, in effect, a one-stop race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is his best race,\u201d team principal Laurent Mekies told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media at Spa.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the best race with us, no question. Honestly, it\u2019s not only a spike, it has been just a little bit better every single race for speed. So he\u2019s bringing some speed every time he\u2019s driving.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is another step, this weekend is another step, because he was very, very fast from FP1.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd yes, we\u2019ve put him on a slightly unusual strategy, which in the end with the timing of the VSC also offered him the possibility to beat Lando fundamentally. So it was good.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was very, very strong. His pace was top three pace, so [I\u2019m] very happy with his progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher<\/p>\n

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n

Read Next:\u00a0Red Bull finds GianPiero Lambiase replacement after Williams move abandoned<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Isack Hadjar is \u201cone of the men of the year\u201d, according to Timo Glock, who believes the Frenchman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,7696,817,813,816,818,10114,44,17165,918,85],"class_list":["post-814705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-belgian-grand-prix","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-home-page","tag-isack-hadjar","tag-news","tag-popular","tag-red-bull","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814705","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=814705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}