Laurent Mekies praises Isack Hadjar’s exceptional speed ahead of Red Bull challenge. Red Bull Team Principal Laurent Mekies has praised Isack Hadjar’s “exceptional” raw speed, .

The Red Bull Team Principal highlights what has impressed him most about the young French driver

Hadjar’s big step forward

2025 marked Isack Hadjar’s debut season in Formula 1, a campaign that began with a weekend to forget in Australia but gradually evolved into a series of increasingly convincing performances with Racing Bulls. Race after race, the young Frenchman showed growing confidence, sharper race craft and, above all, impressive raw pace.

That level of performance was enough to persuade Red Bull to promote him for this season, placing him alongside Max Verstappen. It is a major opportunity for the 21-year-old, who now steps into one of the most demanding seats on the Formula 1 grid — and reunites with a familiar figure in Laurent Mekies.

Outstanding raw speed

The French engineer, now Team Principal at Red Bull in Milton Keynes, previously held the same position at Racing Bulls before succeeding Christian Horner. As a result, Mekies has already worked closely with Hadjar and will continue that partnership during this world championship campaign.

During his time in Faenza, the former Ferrari engineer was particularly struck by one key characteristic of the young driver, as he explained on the James Allen on F1 podcast.

In his comments, Mekies not only praised Hadjar’s talent but also acknowledged the importance of protecting him from the pressure that inevitably comes with sharing a garage with a four-time world champion like Verstappen:

“First of all, we are not hiding behind the fact that we need to do a better job with the second car, and that includes the second part of last year,” he explained. “I think we made some progress with Tsunoda, but not to the level we felt we needed to reach, so we are aware that we have to do a better job there. There is no easy solution, so it’s a complex equation that we are addressing as such.

Now, I think Isack has incredible speed. We believe in raw speed. We think the level at which he started last season, his initial pace, was exceptional. Exceptional at the level of the very best. But we also believe that the great drivers, the champions, not only have an incredible starting point — they improve. It’s not just about progressing in maturity or in the dialogue with engineers; they actually go faster.

You arrive at race five or race ten and they begin to do something with the car that they had never done before. We saw that with Isack last year at Racing Bulls. We are convinced that the potential is enormous.”

For Red Bull, unlocking that potential while managing expectations could prove decisive in their fight at the front of the Formula 1 field this season.