Max Verstappen's potential departure from Red Bull Racing has cast a long shadow over the team, a situation that has persisted for nearly a decade since Daniel Ricciardo's exit. The search for a suitable replacement has been a challenging endeavor, with various drivers failing to meet the high standards set by Ricciardo. The latest chapter in this saga involves Isack Hadjar, who has been called upon to fill the void. Hadjar's performance at the Belgian Grand Prix, where he finished sixth after starting from the back of the grid, has sparked optimism within the team. This achievement is particularly remarkable given the challenging circumstances, including a back-of-grid penalty and the need to create a slipstream for Verstappen. Hadjar's success is a testament to his talent and the team's strategic decision-making. However, the question remains: is Hadjar the long-term solution Red Bull Racing has been seeking? The answer lies in the team's ability to foster his growth and maintain its competitive edge in the face of changing regulations and internal dynamics. Personally, I think Hadjar's performance is a glimmer of hope for the team, but it is too early to determine if he is the definitive answer to their problems. What makes this particularly fascinating is the contrast between Hadjar's success and the struggles of previous drivers in the same role. In my opinion, Hadjar's ability to deliver under pressure and adapt to the team's needs is a positive sign. However, the team must continue to invest in his development and provide the necessary support to ensure his long-term success. From my perspective, Hadjar's performance at the Belgian Grand Prix is a step in the right direction, but it is just one piece of the puzzle. The team must continue to evaluate its options and make strategic decisions to maintain its competitive position in the face of changing regulations and internal dynamics. One thing that immediately stands out is the contrast between Hadjar's performance and the struggles of previous drivers in the same role. What many people don't realize is that Hadjar's success is not just a fluke, but a result of his talent and the team's strategic decision-making. If you take a step back and think about it, Hadjar's performance at the Belgian Grand Prix is a significant achievement that could signal a turning point for the team. This raises a deeper question: can Hadjar sustain his performance and become a reliable partner for Verstappen? A detail that I find especially interesting is the contrast between Hadjar's performance and the struggles of previous drivers in the same role. What this really suggests is that Hadjar's success is not just a fluke, but a result of his talent and the team's strategic decision-making. For Hadjar, it's the realization of his dream to be racing at the front of the field. For Red Bull Racing, though, it could be the answer to a question it's been asking itself for close to a decade. Hadjar's successful transplant into Red Bull Racing is an enormous win for the team at a critical time in its history. The off-track story of the season has been Verstappen's threat to quit the team, a saga that dates back to last season. The risk for RBR isn't just that it loses the most talented driver of his generation; it's that it loses the only driver that's been able to deliver any kind of competitive result in its cars. On average over the last five years, Verstappen has contributed 72.4% of the team's score. Last year, that figure skyrocketed to an astounding 93.3%. Unplugging Verstappen would have left Red Bull Racing looking thoroughly midfield, probably with a line-up comprising a combination of struggling veterans and/or too-green rookies. It's a problem that dates back close to a decade to Daniel Ricciardo's decision in mid-2018 to depart the team for a seat at Renault for the following season. Red Bull Racing has been forlornly looking for Ricciardo's replacement ever since. The Ricciardo-Verstappen partnership is arguably the most effective in Red Bull Racing's history, even without coinciding with a championship run. They were extremely closely matched, and though there were moments of tension in their relationship, they got along very well and remain on good terms today. Partnered for most of 2016 until the end of 2018, there was practically nothing between them when looking at the key metrics. For the purposes of this comparison, we'll look primarily at qualifying data — both the difference in lap time and difference in qualifying result — as well as how far apart the drivers were on average at the chequered flag in grands prix. Daniel Ricciardo vs Max Verstappen (2016–18) Time differential: 0.060 seconds slower Qualifying differential: 0.8 places behind Race differential: 0.1 places ahead This ideal line-up was made all the sweeter by the fact Ricciardo had been backed by Red Bull during his junior career and was effectively homegrown, while it won Verstappen's loyalty by offering him an immediate F1 driver as a 17-year-old rookie when no other team would take the punt. But then Ricciardo, spurred by the appeal of a works team as well as his recognition that Red Bull Racing was building itself around Verstappen, quit for Renault ahead of the 2019 season. Red Bull Racing didn't realize it at the time, but it was in for years of pain attempting to replace him. Pierre Gasly, after just one year in Formula 1, got the nod to replace the Australian. The Frenchman clearly had the speed — and he's proved since that he has the composure too — but he never clicked in the Red Bull Racing environment, revealing later that he felt he wasn't supported to make the step up the grid. His results were well short of the standard set by Ricciardo, and he was turfed at the mid-season break after just 12 races. Gasly (2019): 0.426 seconds slower, 3.4 places behind (races: 4.5 places behind) This was at a time the Red Bull junior pipeline was beginning to run dry, Verstappen having short-circuited it to some extent by rising so rapidly — Alex Albon, who had previously been axed from the Red Bull program, was recalled to replace Gasly at Toro Rosso for 2019 alongside Daniil Kvyat, who had also previously been given his marching orders. Despite his inexperience, Albon was promoted to Gasly’s Red Bull Racing seat for the second half of the season, with Gasly shuffling back down to Toro Rosso. It was taken as positive that Albon was roughly as good as Gasly immediately given his inexperience, but the Thai struggled to kick on in 2020 as the car became more extreme to drive, a trend that would continue for years for his successors. He later memorably likened the car’s skittishness to turning the sensitivity of a computer mouse to the maximum setting. With just one podium to Verstappen’s 11, including two wins, in 2020, Albon was dumped at the end of the season. Albon (2019–20): 0.565 seconds slower, 4.4 places behind (races: 3.7 places behind) The junior pipeline now totally dry, Red Bull looked outside its program to find Verstappen’s teammate, landing on midfield specialist Sergio Pérez, who sealed the deal shortly after winning the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix for Racing Point. He was a minor upgrade on Albon in his first season in terms of pure pace, qualifying less than 0.4 seconds behind Verstappen on average. More important, though, was that he was more readily in position to back up Verstappen when things went wrong. He memorably won his first race for the team in Azerbaijan after a tyre failure took Verstappen out from the lead of the race. This was crucial in what turned into Verstappen’s maiden title-winning campaign. His role holding Lewis Hamilton in Abu Dhabi is the stuff of legend — the time the Briton lost behind Pérez meant he didn’t have enough time to pit when the late safety car came out, leaving him vulnerable to the race-winning and title-winning move at the highly contentious last-lap restart. But being thereabouts is as good as it got. Red Bull Racing’s car advantage in 2022 meant he was qualifying and finishing closer to Verstappen even as he was obliterated by bigger and bigger margins over a single lap, and though he gave the team its first and only one-two title finish in 2023, he only just scraped home in second despite driving the most dominant car in F1 history. Team boss Christian Horner made the bizarre decision to renew his contract early in 2024 despite lacklustre results, and the team was forced to pay him out — and handsomely so — at the end of the year when they didn’t eventuate. Pérez (2021–24): 0.536 seconds slower, 4.8 places behind (races: 3.5 places behind) Despite Pérez’s four years at the team, Red Bull’s young driver stocks were only barely replenished. Yuki Tsunoda had time to become established, but Nyck de Vries was burned to give Ricciardo a shot at redemption. Ricciardo was then sacked to give Liam Lawson a six-race run-in at the end of 2024 to prepare him to replace Pérez at Red Bull Racing, jumping Tsunoda in the queue owing in part to Horner being unconvinced of the Japanese driver’s potential. It was a disastrous decision, with Lawson flailing in the opening two rounds — enough that the team swapped him for Tsunoda before the third race of the season. Though Horner claimed Lawson had been struggling mentally with the challenge, the Kiwi has since said he felt he was thrown under the bus as part of the team’s broader struggles for form. Lawson (2025): 0.913 seconds slower, 15.5 places behind (races: 8.0 places behind) Tsunoda was in excellent form in 2024 and the opening two rounds of 2025 — so much so that his promotion to Red Bull Racing seemed like vindication. Instead he went barely better than Lawson had done. He scored just 30 points to Verstappen’s 421 and was dumped at the end of the season. Tsunoda (2025): 0.662 seconds slower, 9.3 places behind (races: 8.9 places behind) Kostecki DOMINATES in Townsville By the end of last year, it was clear the problem lay not with the drivers — at least not completely — but with the car and to some extent with the team. Hadjar’s promotion, then, was well timed. Not only have the chassis and engine rules massively changed this year, but there’s also considerable change happening inside the team too, with established personnel departing and with new team boss Laurent Mekies setting the tone for those who take their place. The sophomore’s results show a stark turnaround from the dire years the preceded him. Hadjar (2026–ongoing): 0.162 second slower, 2.1 places behind (races: 3.0 places behind) No-one since Ricciardo has returned figures like these alongside Verstappen. They are of course not Verstappen-esque numbers, and Hadjar is clearly second-best to the Dutchman. If Verstappen were to call it quits, Hadjar would still have shoes to fill while presumably taking on the role of senior driver at the team. But for the first time in years, Red Bull Racing can face up to that problem with optimism. Hadjar is achieving something several similarly experienced — and some even more experienced — forebears of his in that seat failed to do: look respectable and score points. In just his second year, he’s likely to get considerably better from here too. Hadjar joked in Belgium, but the evidence suggests he really is delivering for Red Bull Racing.
