Verstappen Hopes Hadjar Succeeds Him — Red Bull's Second-Seat Curse May Be Ending
GOATIFYMax Verstappen has offered Isack Hadjar something that Red Bull's recent second drivers rarely received: a public endorsement as a possible long-term successor. The four-time world champion says he hopes his young teammate can eventually lead the team when Verstappen's own Formula 1 career ends. It is not a retirement announcement, a change of driver hierarchy or a guarantee about the future. But it is a meaningful statement inside a garage where the seat next to Verstappen has repeatedly become an unforgiving audition.
The timing makes the remarks especially revealing. Hadjar has earned another season with Red Bull after two podiums in his first 14 starts for the senior team, while Verstappen is committed through 2030 and team principal Laurent Mekies has a deal running to 2031. After years of changing the supporting cast, Red Bull has the outlines of a longer-term plan. Whether that plan works depends less on the warmth of one interview than on what Hadjar can keep producing on the track.
Verstappen's Endorsement Is About the Future, Not an Imminent Exit
In an interview with French broadcaster Canal+, Verstappen described Hadjar as a young driver who had spent years learning inside the Red Bull programme before reaching the senior team. The Dutchman reflected on being the older member of the pairing and on the team's tradition of developing its next generation from within. Asked directly whether Hadjar might one day take over his position, Verstappen replied, “That's what I hope.”
That answer matters precisely because it is restrained. Verstappen did not say he was preparing to leave, nominate a departure date or promise that Red Bull would hand Hadjar its leading role. His own contract runs through the end of 2030. He was describing the kind of succession a healthy racing organisation should be building, rather than making a short-term driver-market announcement.
For Hadjar, however, the endorsement changes the tone of the conversation. The second Red Bull seat has often been discussed in terms of how long its occupant can survive. Verstappen's words invite a different question: could this teammate become a central part of the team's future instead of another driver measured only by the gap to car number three?
There is also a practical distinction between approval and protection. A supportive comment from the team's established star does not make qualifying mistakes disappear, remove pressure from race strategy or guarantee a new contract. What it can do is show that the team's most influential driver sees potential worth developing. In an environment where driver confidence has repeatedly become a story of its own, that signal is valuable without being decisive.
The key will be whether Red Bull lets Hadjar grow at a realistic pace. Becoming a dependable second driver is already a demanding job beside Verstappen. Becoming the eventual team leader would require something more: consistently strong race execution, technical leadership, and the ability to make a car-development programme work around his feedback rather than simply adapt to another driver's preferences.
Hadjar's 2026 Results Give the Praise Real Substance
Hadjar's case is stronger because the praise follows tangible progress rather than a promising testing session. In his first 14 starts for Red Bull, the Frenchman has recorded two podium finishes. He has also qualified inside the top ten at every Grand Prix except Singapore, where his RB22 encountered reliability trouble, according to the latest reporting. At Suzuka he even beat Verstappen in qualifying on merit, a result that stands out against the record of recent teammates.
None of those numbers means Hadjar has matched Verstappen over a season. The four-time champion remains the reference point, and the gap between producing one excellent Saturday and delivering a title-calibre campaign is enormous. But a second driver does not need to beat Verstappen every weekend to be useful. He needs to put the other car near the front, create strategic options and avoid the costly qualifying deficits that leave the lead driver fighting alone.
The clearest demonstration came in Azerbaijan. Hadjar returned from a wrist injury that had kept him out for three races and finished third, with Verstappen second behind Mercedes' George Russell. That result gave Red Bull its first double podium since the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix. It also mattered as a personal response: returning to a high-speed street circuit after time out is a far more demanding test than simply showing pace in a simulator.
His comeback adds context to the two podiums. Missing races interrupts physical preparation, setup familiarity and the feedback loop between driver and engineers. A strong return suggests Hadjar can reconnect quickly with the team's working methods. It does not eliminate the possibility of setbacks, but it offers a reason for Red Bull to invest in continuity instead of another reset.
The next step is repeatability. Hadjar has already shown flashes of qualifying speed and the ability to finish on the podium. The harder challenge is producing points on weekends when the car is not the obvious second-fastest machine, managing tyre degradation when strategy becomes complicated and turning an awkward Friday into a productive Sunday. Those are the habits that separate a highly rated prospect from a driver a top team can build around.
Why Red Bull's Second Seat Has Been So Difficult to Keep
To understand why Verstappen's endorsement attracts attention, look at the sequence of drivers who have occupied the other Red Bull seat since Daniel Ricciardo left at the end of 2018. Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon struggled to establish themselves in the senior team. Sergio Perez brought race wins and contributed to championship campaigns before his own form deteriorated. Liam Lawson's promotion lasted only two Grands Prix in 2025, after which Yuki Tsunoda was given the opportunity.
It would be simplistic to treat every one of those cases as the same failure. Their circumstances, cars, preparation time and levels of experience differed. Some were promoted rapidly; others arrived with established Formula 1 résumés. But the common feature was a comparison with Verstappen, a driver able to extract speed from machinery that has not always looked comfortable in other hands.
That comparison can distort how a teammate's weekend is judged. A driver who qualifies sixth might be delivering a solid result for the car's actual performance window. If Verstappen qualifies second, however, the narrative becomes the four-place gap. Over time, that can create pressure to chase setup directions or driving styles that do not suit the second driver, potentially making the gap worse rather than smaller.
Red Bull also needs more than a compliant wingman. When the field is close, the second car can protect against rival undercuts, complicate a competitor's tyre strategy and convert a fast package into constructors' points. A team relying almost entirely on one driver loses tactical flexibility even when that driver is winning. The Baku double podium offered a glimpse of what a more balanced pair can deliver.
Hadjar's task is therefore not to recreate Verstappen's driving technique or demand equal billing overnight. It is to become independently effective: fast enough to help the team on the days Verstappen is strongest, and composed enough to lead the operation if Verstappen has a poor session, a penalty or a mechanical problem. That would be progress even before any discussion of long-term succession becomes concrete.
Red Bull's 2027 Stability Plan Will Be Tested on the Track
Red Bull has already made the first important choice: keep the pairing together. Hadjar's contract extension secures his place alongside Verstappen for 2027, while Mekies has been extended through 2031. Those decisions offer stability across the cockpit and the management structure as the team continues to develop its 2026-generation car and Red Bull Ford power unit.
Continuity is particularly important in a regulation cycle that has demanded new solutions from every team. Drivers must learn how to manage the power unit's energy deployment while engineers interpret a constantly changing picture of aerodynamic performance, tyre behaviour and race strategy. The benefits of a familiar driver-engineer relationship accumulate through hundreds of small decisions: which feedback is repeatable, which handling compromises are acceptable and which upgrades actually translate into race pace.
The team also has a competitive reason to protect that continuity. Verstappen's victories at the relocated Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia and in Singapore have transformed the mood around Red Bull's season. Going into Austin, the team is just seven points behind McLaren in the battle for third in the constructors' standings, even as Mercedes and Kimi Antonelli control the drivers' championship picture. A reliable second scorer can matter as much as another spectacular Verstappen win in a tight team battle.
There is no contradiction between Verstappen wanting Hadjar to succeed him someday and intending to race for years. In fact, the two ideas can support each other. If Hadjar improves, Red Bull can compete with two strong cars now and avoid being caught unprepared later. If the Frenchman plateaus, the team will still have to make a hard assessment, regardless of what Verstappen said in an interview.
The coming races provide a useful measuring stick. Austin's combination of fast direction changes, long straights and heavy braking demands adaptability; Mexico City and São Paulo then arrive in quick succession. For Hadjar, the aim should be clean weekends, credible qualifying positions and useful race points rather than a headline-making attempt to beat Verstappen at all costs. A succession plan becomes believable only when it survives the ordinary demands of racing.
Verstappen's words are not a handover ceremony. They are a vote of confidence in a teammate who has already shown more resilience and front-running potential than the label “second Red Bull driver” might suggest. Hadjar has earned the opportunity to be judged over a longer stretch rather than another hurried promotion cycle.
For Red Bull, the opportunity is bigger than identifying a future star. It is a chance to build a team that does not have to reinvent half its driver lineup whenever one season becomes difficult. If Hadjar can turn two podiums and encouraging qualifying results into consistent points, Verstappen's hope could become a serious succession option. Until then, the most useful proof will be the next race, not the next interview.
