SEPTEMBER 3, 2025

Marko tips Hadjar for Red Bull alongside Verstappen

Isack Hadjar looks increasingly destined to line up alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull in 2026.

The 20-year-old French rookie stunned with his Zandvoort podium in the junior Racing Bulls car, becoming the nation's youngest-ever driver on a Formula 1 rostrum - while Yuki Tsunoda continues to struggle at the senior team.

Dr Helmut Marko, long effusive in his praise of Hadjar, said the result was no surprise.

Not really surprising, he told Osterreich newspaper, if you've followed Hadjar's path into Formula 1 and what he's made of it.

Marko then turned on his interviewer for previously praising 19-year-old Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli.

You parroted Toto Wolff who said what a great driver Kimi Antonelli is, Marko snapped.

When the journalist defended Antonelli's stronger junior record and preparation, Marko replied: Sure, but with 10,000 km of practice in a two-year-old car, with which Mercedes let him practice day and night. Before this season, Hadjar had maybe 500km in a Formula 1 car.

Hadjar's early 2025 season was far less glorious - including crashing on the formation laps in Melbourne and breaking down in tears.

He laid it on a bit too thick, Marko recalled. "At the very least he could have taken off his helmet so everyone would have seen that he wasn't really crying.

It's true - those times weren't always easy, but the speed was always there, and in the end he put it all together perfectly.

So why wasn't Hadjar - instead of Tsunoda - given the Red Bull seat earlier in the year when Liam Lawson faltered after just two races?

Because for that he needs a certain amount of routine, said Marko. In a top team the pressure is much greater, as you can also see at Mercedes.

Marko stopped short of confirming Hadjar's definite Red Bull promotion, but his smile told its own story. We'll see, he said.

We have until October to make that decision.

Still, the Austrian advisor admits Hadjar's off-track character makes him an ideal candidate. He's a funny fellow. And highly intelligent - his mother is deputy HR director at a company with 4,000 employees, his father is a nuclear physicist.

Marko also suggested a reunion with team principal Laurent Mekies, Hadjar's former boss at Racing Bulls, will be ideal.

Mekies is a superb engineer, which with the complexity of Formula 1 today is a huge advantage, said Marko. He's also good with people - the atmosphere is completely different from before.

And is Max Verstappen himself also happier in this new post-Christian Horner era?

It's going very well, said a relieved Marko. He has observed everything over the past weeks and is convinced it's heading in the right direction.

(GMM)