Isack Hadjar’s move to Red Bull Racing in 2026 immediately raises one big question: how will he do alongside Max Verstappen? Alan Permane, team principal of Racing Bulls, spoke with GPblog about that challenge and the role his team played in Hadjar’s development.
While the final preparations were being made in Detroit for the joint presentation by Ford, Red Bull Racing, and Racing Bulls, scheduled press moments got underway on the upper floors of Michigan Central Station.
In one of the rooms specially set up for media conversations, away from the stage where the joint launch will take place later in the evening, Alan Permane calmly took a seat for a conversation with GPblog.
How will Hadjar hold his own alongside Verstappen?
The discussion quickly turned to the inevitable comparison with Max Verstappen and the question of how a young driver like Isack Hadjar will hold up next to a four-time world champion.
It’s a question that is difficult for Permane to answer, although he is convinced that his former driver will not have an exceptionally hard time alongside Verstappen—helped in part by the advantage of a completely new car and therefore a clean slate.
The comparison with Verstappen makes any answer complicated, Permane emphasized. “That's a very difficult question. The Max question is very difficult. I'm not sure anybody knows the answer to that one."
He therefore refrained from stating expectations about how Hadjar will fare alongside the four-time world champion.
What Permane does make clear is that he does not expect major problems for the young Frenchman. “I don't want to say he's going to be… There's no way I'm going to say he's going to struggle against Max. No way.
"Because I genuinely don't believe he will. But, I guess he's got the advantage of a complete new car reset, which could help him.”
Racing Bulls’ role in Hadjar’s development
According to Permane, Racing Bulls’ focus is not on training drivers for Red Bull Racing, but on maximizing performance within its own team. That process automatically leads to the necessary growth and development for drivers to take the next step in their Formula 1 careers.
“Well, I think we prepared him as best we could. And it's not really a case of preparing him to go up there. It's a constant process,” the 58-year-old Briton explained.
“And everything we do to try and be more successful on track just naturally prepares him. That preparation comes for free really.”
Permane cited several areas in which Racing Bulls has worked with Hadjar in a structured way.
“So everything we do in terms of his race craft, in terms of his start performance, tyre management, all that sort of stuff, is stuff that we want him to do anyway,” he continued.
According to the team boss, those elements are essential, regardless of which F1 team a driver races for.
That those same skills will also come in handy at Red Bull Racing is, in Permane’s view, a logical consequence of the day-to-day work within the Faenza-based team: “That just adds to him being more ready to drive for Red Bull Racing.”
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