Despite retiring from the race, Isack Hadjar’s performance in the F1 Australian Grand Prix has put Red Bull’s “second seat” back where it belongs. The young French driver shone brightly throughout the weekend, proving that Red Bull has finally found a true second weapon alongside Max Verstappen.
Fast from Friday onwards, Hadjar could have challenged the two Ferrari cars and Lando Norris’ McLaren before his race retirement. This role of a second attacker, following the team leader Verstappen, is something Red Bull has been missing since the days of Daniel Ricciardo. Now, Milton Keynes can aim high once again.
Is the Red Bull “second seat” curse finally over?
After years of disappointments, from Liam Lawson to Yuki Tsunoda, Sergio Perez to Pierre Gasly, only Daniel Ricciardo managed to keep pace with Max Verstappen since the Dutch driver arrived at Milton Keynes. This performance gap is not just reflected in the championship points at the end of the season; it also complicates the team’s development efforts.
Without in-season testing, all car evaluations must take place during race weekends. This means using both cars to collect essential data and insights for future updates and developments. But if one car is significantly slower than the other, these measurements can be skewed, slowing down engineers’ work both at the track and in the factory.
Mekies praises Hadjar: “A fantastic weekend for him”
Laurent Mekies, Red Bull’s team principal, knows this well and praised Hadjar’s performance to motorsport.com: “It was a fantastic weekend for him. He arrived here with very few kilometers from testing, partly due to some bad luck, and on the first lap of FP1, he was already on it. We were able to split the workload between the cars and collect twice the data.”
“In qualifying, he achieved the maximum possible with this car, third place, and he had a great start in the race. Only afterwards did he realize he didn’t have enough battery charge, and I believe that in race pace, he could have fought with the McLarens,” concluded the French engineer.
Having a driver of Hadjar’s caliber in the second car provides Red Bull with a strategic flexibility they haven’t enjoyed in years. Beyond the data collection, his presence at the front of the grid forces rivals to split their strategies, preventing them from focusing solely on hunting down Verstappen. As the 2026 season progresses, the synergy between the veteran champion and the hungry newcomer could be the deciding factor in the constructors’ title race.
Isack Hadjar’s debut weekend at Albert Park therefore suggests that Red Bull has finally found a driver capable of matching the team’s ambitions, providing both a competitive edge on track and a reliable technical benchmark for future car developments.
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