{"id":65053,"date":"2026-02-04T16:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T16:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/?p=65053"},"modified":"2026-02-04T16:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T16:12:10","slug":"hadjar-gets-verstappen-support-makes-bold-2026-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/hadjar-gets-verstappen-support-makes-bold-2026-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"Hadjar gets Verstappen support, makes &#8216;bold&#8217; 2026 claim"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Isack Hadjar has the backing of teammate Max Verstappen as he takes over Red Bull&#8217;s infamous second seat.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The young Frenchman was arguably Formula 1&#8217;s most impressive rookie in 2025, scoring 51 points, including a brilliant podium at Zandvoort.<\/p>\n<p>Those performances saw Hadjar promoted to become Verstappen&#8217;s seventh different teammate since he joined Red Bull in 2016.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Turning \ud83c\udd99 the shine \u2728<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/F1?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#F1<\/a> || <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/RedBullRacing?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#RedBullRacing<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/r79PPiN4DZ\">pic.twitter.com\/r79PPiN4DZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/redbullracing\/status\/2016816547084284092?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 29, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>And while many have come before, the four-time world champion does think the 21-year-old has the chance to prove himself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy not?\u201d Verstappen told\u00a0<em>Blick. <\/em>\u201cAfter a great first season with Racing Bulls, he deserves a chance with Red Bull.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd with the new rules, there are sure to be surprises, so we may see some new names at the front.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hadjar had a mixed start at his first Red Bull test last week in Spain, completing over 100 laps on a strong first day, before crashing on Day 2.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was nice to have a good day on Monday,\u201d he reflected. \u201cIt was very productive and we managed to do a lot more laps than we had expected, everything went pretty smooth and we had only minor issues.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Also Read:<\/strong><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/verstappen-2025-fan-support-maybe-realise-who-i-really-am\/\"><strong>Verstappen on 2025 fan support: &#8220;Maybe they realise who I am&#8221;<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;It was quite impressive considering it was our first day with our own power unit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, on Tuesday, just after switching from wets to inters, I lost control of the car in the final corner, and I know the aftermath wasn\u2019t ideal for the team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In fact, Red Bull had to fly spares out to Barcelona to repair its RB22, with Verstappen only running on the final day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe positive is that I have already started to understand and work on things in the car, there are still a lot of things to tweak of course, but it has been steady so far,&#8221; Hadjar continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese cars are different, very different, there is definitely a lot less load in general and it is a bit more predictable compared to the previous generation, they are a bit more straightforward.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is easier to play around with them, and on the PU [power unit] side, there are a lot more options for the driver to play with.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI couldn\u2019t have prepared for this season any better, and I am hoping to come into the year strongly, but we are definitely not done with the work yet, I am learning every day.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_65055\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65055\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-65055\" src=\"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/G_8Z274WAAEsKSD-e1770221469667.jpg\" alt=\"Hadjar, Barcelona Shakedown\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1799\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-65055\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hadjar is setting big goals for 2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Speaking at the recent Autosport Awards, Hadjar was asked about his goals for 2026&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s like rolling a dice with the new regulation,\u201d he suggested. \u201cBold\u2026 fighting for the world title, I guess. That\u2019s bold enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Isack Hadjar has the backing of teammate Max Verstappen as he takes over Red Bull&#8217;s infamous second seat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":65054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[341,295,517,294,354],"class_list":{"0":"post-65053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-isack-hadjar","11":"tag-max-verstappen","12":"tag-red-bull"},"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65056,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65053\/revisions\/65056"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}