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Our Reaction to Isack Hadjar JOINING Red Bull for 2026
Our Reaction to Isack Hadjar JOINING Red Bull for 2026
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About this episode
Matt and Tommy react to the announcement that Isack Hadjar will join Red Bull Racing in 2026 alongside Max Verstappen, with Arvid Lindblad joining Red Bull's junior team. They discuss the challenges and opportunities Hadjar faces stepping into the 'cursed' Red Bull number two seat, the impact of new regulations, and how Red Bull prioritizes Verstappen's feedback in car development. The hosts also analyze Yuki Tsunoda's uncertain future, Lindblad's promotion timing, and Liam Lawson's chance to prove himself with a full season. The episode blends driver performance insights with team strategy and future prospects.
Topics:
isack hadjar joining red bull
max verstappen
red bull driver lineup
arvid lindblad promotion
yuki tsunoda future
liam lawson performance
red bull number two seat
formula one regulations
driver development
team strategy
Just when we thought there couldn't be more F1 news to discuss, Red Bull have announced their driver line-up for next season! So how will Isack Hadjar fare as Max Verstappen's teammate? Which brand new rookie is replacing him at Racing Bulls? And what next for Yuki Tsunoda? We've got some answers!
Please vote for us in the Autosport Awards 2026! https://www.autosport.com/awards-voting/
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Hello, everybody, and welcome back
to the B1 Podcast with Matt and Tommy.
If you'd thought there weren't enough episodes before,
why don't we add another one to the catalog?
Because Red Bull were like,
hey, there's not a lot going on
for this upcoming Abu Dhabi finale.
They went, okay, driver announcement, here we go.
It's been, of course, spoken about a hell of a lot,
who's staying, who's going, and so on and so forth.
And we finally have confirmation, Tommy.
You know, you are a Max fan, of course.
How are you feeling knowing that he's not retiring?
It's good to know.
It would be a shame, wouldn't it?
Still obviously waiting to see whether he will have
the number one on his car next year,
or 33, or three, or 69, or whatever he's gonna change it to.
But yeah, it's strange time for Red Bull
to announce their driver lineup, in my opinion,
when Max is going for the title this weekend.
Seems like whether it's a thing to distract
from the fact that it's happening
and maybe get some questions about that,
rather than bombarding Max with championship
challenger questions, I don't know,
but just seems like an odd time to do it.
Yeah, as soon as Yuki did a good sprint race,
they were like, now, now is the time to announce.
Anyway, the actual news that you've all come here for
is that Isaac Haja is going to Red Bull Racing
alongside Max Verstappen, and Arvid Lindblad
is to join Liam Lawson at Racing Bulls.
Let's get into our first thoughts.
How are we feeling?
What are our emotions?
For me, it's not a massive surprise.
This is what has been rumored for a very long time.
We have spoken on the podcast about Yuki's performances
and how it just has not been good enough
to warrant staying in the main team,
and also with the fact of Arvid Lindblad
getting a lot of hype, a lot of attention in the media.
We just thought that would be it for Yuki, sadly.
And as of right now, of course,
he does not have a seat for 2026,
whether he'll get a reserve role
or he'll go to a completely different series
is yet to be seen.
But yeah, I think overall the feelings are,
this is exciting.
I like the fact we're getting another driver up against Max.
We're getting a new talent in Arvid Lindblad
on the grid for next year,
but it's not taken my breath away from shock.
Certainly not.
Now, I'm not surprised one bit, really,
by this announcement.
We've been saying it probably for the last couple of months
because it seemed very likely,
had just had a brilliant season,
so you kind of knew that he was gonna be there.
The only way he wouldn't be there, I think, if he'd refused,
but we, of course, had this conversation
of you can't refuse it,
even though we know it's this poison chalice
and all this kind of stuff.
And as for Arvid Lindblad,
the team have been very impressed by him.
They've wanted him in for a long time.
He's been doing some F1 tests and things as well,
so it just felt like they were always gonna put
a new driver in as well, weren't they?
And that they did.
So let's start with some questions
about Hajar and Red Bull first.
People on Patreon remember Zingy13.
How do you see Hajar fairing against Max in 2026?
Will he do any better than any of the other drivers
that have occupied the Red Bull number two seat
in recent years, or is the number two seat simply cursed?
Honestly, the odds aren't horrendous
for Hajar to do quite well in Red Bull.
And I know that sounds weird on the face of it
because it's been a disaster ever since Danny Rick,
even the end of Danny Rick's Red Bull career
was difficult, but when Danny Rick was in his heyday
at Red Bull, that was the last time
that the number two thrived in Red Bull
to some degree, getting victories and so on and so forth.
But with this new regulation change,
massive overhaul of the rules,
I think this really does play into a young talent
such as Isaac Hajar.
It plays into his hands in my opinion.
I feel as though it gives him a great opportunity
to build with the car from literally the ground up, right?
Of course, they will still have four wheels.
It's not like they're running six or anything,
but there's so much changing
that I feel as though Hajar will do the best we have seen
since Danny Ricardo in his heyday, as I mentioned.
I totally agree.
I think Hajar, of course, is gonna be up against it
going against Manchester Stappen.
He's been the teammate killer for the last,
goodness knows how many years,
but I think if you look at the evidence of like
when the cars change,
you go into 2017, that was a regulation change
or like a change of like car.
Max didn't completely dominate Daniel Ricardo
and knock him out of the park completely.
Then you look at the equally when it changed
when Sergio Perez came in in 2022.
He hit the ground running very well,
got a couple of wins, looking good.
And there was all this talk of like
can Perez challenge for the championship?
It's only when the car,
Max really starts to dominate more and more of his teammates
when the development pushes towards
the way he likes the car
and of course they're always gonna do that
because it's Max Stappen,
push towards that development of the car
and the problem we've seen now is Red Bull
are so far down this route
with the way Max likes to drive that car
to suit his driving style
and there's absolutely every right for them to do that
because look how he's performing.
Now no one can jump in and do it.
So I think a complete refresh
where they're both going into a new regulation,
it'll be a new car for both of them
and before Max can kind of stamp his style
as much as he wants on the new regulation,
I think is gonna play in Hajar's favor a lot.
I think he's gonna fare a lot, lot better,
I'd predict, than the other drivers.
Please don't let this age terribly
and Isaac H. R. qualifies 20th
in the first five races, I beg.
Question from P1 Patreon member Tony Soprano.
How many more times will Red Bull make the same mistake
of promoting drivers too quickly
instead of giving them time to properly develop at VCarb?
I personally don't agree with this one.
I know it's a narrative that gets pushed a lot
every time they hire a young driver
but they hired Sergio Perez and it didn't work.
No, it's not worked putting anyone alongside Max.
There was, this was the theory behind Alex Alban
and all this kind of stuff going in and Gasly
and the talk was the same question.
You're promoting drivers too early.
They said, okay, we're gonna put in
one of the most experienced drivers on the grid
and put him alongside Max to step in.
And it didn't go as badly
but obviously it got worse and worse and worse
and Perez had a really tough time at the end of it
and was dropped.
And then even with Yuki Snowde,
you can argue that, you know, he'd had a very long time
to at racing Bulls and VCarb and Torosso
and everything off a tarry that they were.
And he'd had a long time to kind of get used
to Formula One and then he made the move up
and still couldn't perform.
So I don't personally see it as a mistake.
They know when they're ready
and this is F1 and it's the way that Red Bull do it,
like you sink or swim.
And some drivers have been able to do it,
some others haven't.
And I think this is the time for Hajar.
I know it's very early
but I don't know how much you'd benefit
from one year in a new regulation in a racing Bulls.
Like he's proved that he's got talent.
It's gonna be completely different regs anyway.
So like, why go into another car?
Just learn at Red Bull.
I think it's a good idea to promote him at this stage.
On the point of Yuki,
I don't think Red Bull set him up for success
by the fact that they didn't commit to him
from the start of the season.
No, of course not.
Had Liam Lawson and then plonked him in mid-season
without any pre-season testing of this 2025 car.
So Red Bull have not done it perfectly by any stretch.
You know, they chose Liam Lawson, he was not ready.
He was not ready for the step up
and he could not perform.
Like we're seeing Lawson now in the VCarb
doing extremely well because the pressure is off him.
It's a car that he knows and he's doing pretty well.
Whereas now-
But is that just the VCarb?
Like, sure.
Like, do you think, just to like, count to that,
like do you think Yuki would have done better
or the same going in from the start?
Because like Lawson didn't,
like Lawson was a map shape of,
yeah, just like covering that side of it.
Like I don't know Yuki would,
I don't think Yuki would like have been really,
really good had he had those first two races.
Let's say Yuki Snowder would not be
in the Abu Dhabi championship finale fight.
I'm not saying that if he had the pre-season test.
I do think he would have done better
or marginally better with that preparation.
I think for sure.
You know, getting, being put into a car
that is so otherworldly different to the VCarb,
I don't think could work for many drivers.
But you know, as you said earlier,
you sink or swim in this business.
And Red Bull are so hamstrung by the fact
that Max Verstappen is a blessing and a curse
for Red Bull as an outfit
because they are literally dependent on him.
So what they have to do,
and we want to see this,
we want to see young talent be given an opportunity,
what they have to do is continue to bring
new drivers into the outfit
to try and find someone
that could even come close to Max Verstappen.
So you promote Hadjar.
If he doesn't do that well next year
and Arvid Lindblad has a great season,
I expect him to maybe get the seat in 2027 perhaps.
Like there's so many moving parts in Red Bull
because I think they are very much
in big red button panic emergency mode
that Max could well leave
if Red Bull rolls out the fourth fastest car next year,
which it could well happen.
So that's what we're kind of seeing before our eyes
as much as it's really exciting to see the young talent.
I think Red Bull are in serious concern
or they're feeling like they are going to be abandoned
by Max Verstappen at some point
if they can't provide a championship winning car.
So yeah, these are all sort of
trying to find the next Max Verstappen
but realizing that there isn't really another Max
at least not with the style of car
that they've developed over the years.
Next question, people on page remember it's Bob 06.
How will Red Bull manage the second car next season?
Do they give Max priority to try to keep him
or give Haja the same chance as Max?
It's funny, I think we talk about the second Red Bull seat,
it's cursed, it's this, that and the other.
That only goes so far.
You cannot say that the car is consistently
throughout an entire season just not set up
for any other driver than Max.
Max is a human being.
He is a very, very extremely talented human being
and there will be other people that have the same style
as Max or can drive around issues in the car
and things like that.
It's not a case of Red Bull sitting down
and going, right, do we give Haja a chance next year?
Yes or no?
It's not a give Max priority or let Isaac have a chance.
It's build the best car possible, take Max's feedback
because Max is a four, maybe five time world champion
come the end of this week, sorry, time for me to say it.
They're going to take his feedback
because he knows how to build and develop a car that he likes.
Haja just needs to keep on top of it.
Unfortunately, as you said, it's a blessing and a curse
that they've got Max Verstappen
because it means that they're always gonna struggle
with the second seat because of the way Max likes it
and also like prioritizing Max.
Some people will say it's silly to when, you know,
he might leave and there will be that thought
in the back of Red Bull's mind
that they're now weirdly like they'd pushed this car
so far down that if there hadn't been a new regulation change
and Max had left, they would be royally screwed.
Like they would be literally like last in the constructors
because they'd probably ended up with two drivers
that didn't know how to drive it
and it would have completely screwed them
but you have to even though Max, yeah, might leave,
might decide to go or might even just call it quits
and decide I don't wanna drive these cars anymore
and I don't actually like them very much
and I wanna go off and do the Nurburgring or whatever.
You have to go down Max's path.
He's the four-time world champion
and unfortunately for Hadjar,
he just has to learn from Max Verstappen.
He won't be able to, you don't build a car around Hadjar.
He's a fantastic driver and, you know,
he's shown that he's brilliant
and he is, could well be their long-term future
but you have to prioritize Max
and build that car around Max
and that is just the way Red Bull will do things.
Even if there's the threat of him leaving,
they know that their best chance to win races
and win championships and challenge,
yeah, challenge for championships
is to just back Max 100% like it's worked for them.
You never saw Ferrari, you know,
when Michael Schumacher was dominating,
going, oh, we should make the car a bit better
for the second driver like Massa or Barrichella
or whatever, like, doesn't happen.
Like that you just have to back your champion
and that's the way they do it.
And for most of the time, for the last four years
and we're about to find out whether it works again,
it's worked.
It has worked and the minute you don't prioritize Max,
he leaves.
So you are damned if you do,
you're damned if you don't with Max Verstappen.
You have to go with what he wants,
but the problem is we've spoken about the weaknesses
as a team that that also brings
because nobody apparently can drive what Max drives.
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Next question, people on page remember Patrick.
Do you think we'll see Yuki back in Formula One again
or will it be similar to Daniel
and become a reserve driver?
The only reserve role I see for Yuki,
obviously, as we now know, all the seats are locked in
so he's not got another chance at Formula One.
A reserve driver for Aston Martin,
potentially with their Honda deal,
of course, that would kind of work for them
and could potentially see it.
But I just see Yuki maybe trying something different
with his Honda back in going to like an Indy car
or something and trying to build a name for himself.
There, it's so difficult because Yuki,
I think there's hope for Yuki in the kind of way
that Alex Albin has bounced back as a good example.
But unfortunately for him, there's not many seats about.
It's the Formula One.
And there's a lot of very, very, very talented drivers
who want better seats for themselves.
And there's not a huge amount of room at the end.
No, there isn't.
I struggle to see where Yuki comes back
into Formula One personally.
And there's obviously an understanding of Red Bull
and everything we've spoken about with that second seat.
But if you finish or you lose your seat through a season
where you've struggled so massively,
you need a team to pick you up immediately
and cradle you back to health and happiness
like they did with Alex Albin and with Pierre Gasly.
They were able to come back from that.
But if you lose your seat and you're out of a whole season,
I struggle to see where teams will then reinvest
into a driver that sadly, yeah, towards the end,
it didn't go well.
But I would like to think they also would consider
how good he was when he wasn't given the promotion,
whatever you want to call it these days.
So yeah, it's sad to see for Yuki,
but did he do enough to say,
I am better than Liam Lawson.
I am better than an Arvid Lindblad coming through.
I am better than Hajar.
I don't think so.
I don't think he was a step above any of those drivers,
not that we know about Arvid yet.
So that's where, again, it's a concern for Yuki
because once you're out, it's very hard to get back in.
Okay, let's move on now to Arvid Lindblad.
Question from P1Patreon member,
Tote, are they promoting Lindblad too early
or can we expect another Antonelli style season from him?
I mean, you've kind of touched upon it,
Tommy, haven't you, about the fact that
this is what Rebel do,
and too early, too late, it depends on the driver.
It fully depends on the mentality
that these young drivers show in the junior formulas.
You look at what he's been doing in Formula Two,
and he's had some pretty decent results
in the first half of his season,
not the best in the second half,
he's sixth in the championship,
but he's clearly shown something to Red Bull
about what he's capable of doing.
As you said, Tommy, as well,
he's driven Formula One cars,
he's been able to display some kind of talent
and yeah, I mean, Rebel must see something.
They're pretty good at spotting young talent,
and we will, time will tell,
time will really tell when it comes to Lindblad,
but it works in the sense of going into the junior team,
that there is some level of understanding
within the first two races,
and then you have to perform fully.
Yeah.
So I'm not gonna say it's too early just yet,
and I know it's, I love it's the Antonelli style season.
Antonelli's had half a season where he's been pretty poor,
so a rookie season pretty standard then.
Yeah, it was hard to know if that's like a pro or con
that an Antonelli style season,
because yes, he has been brilliant at the moment,
but then had that really poor run.
I think Lindblad, he's not set the world alight
in Formula Two, but teams know things, I think,
more than what you see.
He's been really through his results since round 13,
because it's not particularly good reading,
considering he's just been promoted to Formula One.
So he's gone, retired 12th, 9th, 8th, 17th,
disqualified 10th, 6th, second retired 10th, 6th, 18th, 4th.
So it's not the best run of form,
and yet Rebel have still gone,
you know what, we see something.
Yeah, and this is what I was gonna say here,
that you look at that and go,
oh, he's sixth in F2, he finished Formula Three
in fourth place, won a lot of races,
had another equally bad end to the season in Formula Three,
but I would argue that there's a lot of drivers
that have come in now, and not everyone needs to be
a Max Verstappen, Charlotte Clair, George Russell,
where they absolutely like, wow,
this is the next amazing talent,
because I would argue Hajar himself,
you know, yes, he finished second in Formula Two,
fourth in Formula Three, and yeah,
it did come very close to the title,
but I don't think he was like a Le Clair or a Piastri
that had like, you know, dominated up the formula,
and equally, like someone like Oli Bearman
has been so good in Formula One,
and I think if you hadn't seen him do those performances
where he'd done practice sessions with Haas,
of course he had that amazing opportunity
to drive for Ferrari, is it unfair to say that Oli Bearman,
I don't know, like, would he have got a shot?
I think he would have, but I don't think,
I think would have had the same conversation
of like, is he ready?
But because he actually got that promotion into the sea,
and it was like, wow, okay, this kid is actually amazing,
the teams know so much more from data
than just looking at like, wikipedia results from that F2,
because like, it's very easy to look at those results,
like you said, and like, reeled off.
The teams know so much more of like, their development,
like their ceiling, how much they can develop a car,
like all this kind of stuff,
like they've seen so many drivers,
and Red Bull themselves, and Helmut Marco,
and that whole Red Bull Junior thing,
have seen that with Max Verstappen,
they've seen that with Sebastian Vettel,
so they know what that kind of driver looks like,
so they just make that judgment based on that.
And sometimes, yeah, these kind of results,
they know more to it
than maybe what we see on paper.
Yeah, and also as well, I need to mention,
from a positive side, of course,
we've spoken about his difficult end
to his Formula Two campaign,
but he stepped into the car
in free practice one in Mexico and put it sixth.
He was faster than Sonoda by a 10th,
of course, Rumplands, et cetera, et cetera,
but he still put the car sixth
in a car that he's been in twice.
I think he was in Silverstone as well,
if I'm not mistaken.
Let me just check the FP1 results for that one as well.
So that one was a bit more steady, he was 14th,
but the thing was right, he didn't bin it,
he didn't make any headlines for the wrong reasons,
and yeah, I think Mexico was probably the moment
where Red Bull saw enough to go, yeah,
I think he's ready for a chance next year,
and congratulations to him.
What you're gonna see as well is a amazing clip.
I think it was from one of Lando's vlogs
about five years ago,
and you'll see this doing the rounds on Twitter now
because it will be everywhere, and now he's announced,
but Limblad, I think he's like 13 at the time,
and he goes up to Lando and he's like,
I'll see you in F1 in five years, and here we are.
It's crazy.
Nice, we love those kind of stories.
Love the confidence.
That's brilliant, that's great stuff.
Next question from people on Patreon member,
a good Karen.
Now that Lawson is going to finally get a full,
uninterrupted year at one team,
are we going to see a much more settled
and confident driver out of him?
It's crazy to think that yeah,
Lawson is going into year four of his Formula One career,
and it might just be the first year of his whole career,
and he'll probably hope that he basically stays
with the same team the entire time,
because yeah, an interrupted couple of first years,
then the Red Bull Demotion and stuff.
Lawson is an unusual one.
He's going to be a great benchmark for Limblad,
with him being in the car last year.
Lawson's results I think have been more impressive
than I think a lot of people think
with how he's done against Hadjus since he's come back in.
They've been very similar on pace
and a lot of their results and things.
And now with Lawson, for him weirdly,
like we've never seen a Formula One,
like a Red Bull driver get demoted
and then go back in at the Red Bull seat.
We saw Gasly, even when he won in an Alphatowery
and said I would go back in,
I'm ready, I can do this.
They didn't take that risk.
They didn't put him back in.
So for Lawson, in a weird way,
he's there to be the benchmark,
and this is his year to prove, I think,
in my opinion, to another team
and for him to do a Gasly, an Alburn,
get out of there,
because he's not going back to Red Bull
and you don't wanna stay at V-Cup forever,
to prove yourself enough that another team wants him on board.
I think that's like Lawson's plan here
and what he needs to do for the rest of his career.
Well, it's a tried and tested blueprint, isn't it,
from the Gaslies and the Albons
that we've spoken about.
So yeah, for Lawson, it's similar to Sonoda
in the fact that he was also on the back foot.
Yes, going to the V-Cup is supposedly
a better baseline of a car
and it's easier to drive, yada, yada, yada.
But he still had to just jump in
after what must have been so mentally draining
and sapping that that sort of very short Red Bull stint
that he had.
And it took him a little bit of time
to probably get used to the car,
get back up to speed, but once he did,
he scored in seven races this year.
I'd say that for Lawson,
the next year's a really important one.
Tommy, you sort of said that as well
in getting noticed by other teams,
but also he has to beat Limblad comprehensively.
Like he has to do it.
I know that it's technically what only is second.
He wouldn't be a rookie
because he has actually done the entire season this year,
but just with two different teams.
But he's got races under his belt
and Limblad, as we've already said,
has impressed in some ways,
but also clearly a lot of learning to do
from his junior career.
Lawson has to beat Limblad
for teams, I think, to take him seriously.
Whether V-Cup would still continue with Lawson
for the years after that,
should he do a good enough job?
Probably, it depends who else is waiting in the wings.
But I expect him to do better.
I think Hajar's done a very good job
and made Lawson, you know,
probably think, oh, maybe I do need to look around
because Hajar's done a phenomenal job.
And he'll be hoping that Limblad
doesn't do the same thing.
But next year, I think Lawson should improve.
He'll be much more settled as a good Karen says
and fingers crossed for him,
and he'll be able to get some better results.
And that is it.
We are done.
We are dusted.
Rebel driver announcement for 2026.
Locked in.
How many more podcasts we will have to wait and see?
It's great to continue talking about Formula One
because we're gonna have a period
after Abu Dhabi finishes.
Once we've done our recap content
where we all just take a big, deep breath
and a big old sigh.
Tommy, final thoughts, please.
Maybe I'm muted, that would be great.
You know, just had to end the podcast.
It's just that tiny thing.
A woofy Frank here.
A woofy Frank.
A woofy Frank.
Didn't want him to interrupt this wonderful podcast.
Yes, one, like it's all locked in now 2026.
Can't wait for it.
But of course, one more big moment in 2025 still to go.
Final race, don't miss it.
Make sure you join us for the watch along and everything
because it's gonna be fire.
It's gonna be a big one.
It's gonna be tense.
It might be the most boring Abu Dhabi race ever,
but it's gonna be tense.
It's gonna be a Claren 1-2, mate.
I don't know what's jumping in the world,
but until then, we'll have good fun.
So thank you everybody for tuning in
to this emergency podcast,
and we will see you this weekend
for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix finale.
Bye.
Bye.
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