{"id":934813,"date":"2026-10-20T10:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T10:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/934813\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T10:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T10:22:09","slug":"max-verstappen-backs-isack-hadjar-to-take-over-as-red-bulls-number-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/934813\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen backs Isack Hadjar to take over as Red Bull\u2019s number one"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen<\/a> believes Isack Hadjar is the driver who could replace him as Red Bull<\/a>\u2019s number one driver when he eventually calls time on his F1 career.<\/p>\n

Hadjar joined Red Bull this season after a year with Racing Bulls, and has twice featured on the podium and helped Verstappen secure the team\u2019s first double podium since 2014 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen has his Red Bull successor in mind<\/p>\n

The second race seat alongside Verstappen<\/a> at Red Bull has been a cursed job since Daniel Ricciardo left the team at the end of the 2018 season.<\/p>\n

Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda have all had a turn, but failed to come close to matching Verstappen\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

Only Perez won a Grand Prix with Red Bull, while Alex Albon can at least say he managed two podium finishes.<\/p>\n

Now it is Hadjar\u2019s turn.<\/p>\n

The Frenchman has two top-three results in his 14 starts with Red Bull, became the first driver since Perez to out-qualify Verstappen on merit at the Japanese Grand Prix, and has qualified inside the top ten for every Grand Prix bar Singapore when his RB22 suffered reliability issues.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old has been the closest teammate to Verstappen since Perez\u2019s penultimate season with Red Bull.<\/p>\n

It has earned him a second season with Red Bull, with team principal Laurent Mekies announcing last month: \u201cSince joining us at the start of the year, he has been superb on and off track, especially considering this is only his second Formula 1 season, which made extending his contract an easy decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Go deeper: Isack Hadjar\u2019s Red Bull contract<\/p>\n

F1 driver contracts: What is the contract status of every driver on the F1 2026 grid?<\/a><\/p>\n

F1 2027 driver line-up: Which drivers are already confirmed for the 2027 grid?<\/a><\/p>\n

Hadjar will continue racing alongside Verstappen in F1 2027, and potentially even beyond, with the four-time world champion signing a new extension through to the end of the 2030 championship.<\/p>\n

Verstappen believes Hadjar is the driver who could replace him as Red Bull\u2019s number one driver when he eventually retires.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsack, he\u2019s still a very young guy,\u201d he told Canal+.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been a part of the Red Bull programme for a while now. Even when he was still not racing in Formula 1, he\u2019s been around to some of the races, listening in and following.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I slowly start to feel a little bit old having a younger teammate by quite a few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s a normal process, and that\u2019s also what, as a team, you should be looking for, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to race forever, and at one point you need new talent coming into the team to try and take over at one point.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s always been a little bit the way that Red Bull works, finding new talent, and I think that will continue for a long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a teammate, he has been great. He\u2019s just getting started, but it has been really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked outright if Hadjar could be the driver who \u2018could take over after yourself\u2019, the 29-year-old replied: \u201cThat\u2019s what I hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I said, I\u2019m not racing here forever.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a few years on me, so hopefully he can stay around for a bit longer.\u201d<\/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:\u00a0Horner claims Max Verstappen \u2018needs\u2019 conversation impacting Red Bull still<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen believes Isack Hadjar is the driver who could replace him as Red Bull\u2019s number one driver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":934814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,818,825,44,918,85],"class_list":["post-934813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-home-page","tag-max-verstappen","tag-news","tag-red-bull","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934813","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=934813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/934814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=934813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=934813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=934813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}