Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

F1 veteran sizes up whether Hadjar can defy Red Bull’s second-driver history

13:01, 12 Jan

byTobia Elia

Former FIA steward Johnny Herbert has weighed in on whether Isack Hadjar could be capable of breaking Red Bull’s long-running second driver curse.

“I think he surprised so many people — probably including myself”

- Johnny Herbert

The Frenchman delivered an impressive rookie campaign in 2025, finishing the season ahead of the far more experienced Liam Lawson and even securing a surprise podium at Zandvoort — performances that ultimately earned him a promotion to race alongside Max Verstappen at the end of the year.

Appearing on the Stay On Track podcast alongside Damon Hill, the former FIA steward analysed his season as follows: “If you look at what he achieved last year, he showed probably one of his strongest qualities: consistency. That consistency was there in qualifying. He was always sort of sixth, seventh, eight for the majority of the season, but he was also able to score points consistently as well.

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

“He was consistently ahead of Lawson too, who had that little bit more experience. He probably wasn’t someone who was on the tip of people’s tongues during his F2 days, strangely enough. He had a solid time in F2 but never won the championship.

“I think he surprised so many people — probably including myself — because I really liked his work ethic within the team, which was simply to keep pushing. It’s a little bit like we alluded to earlier on.”

Asked whether he will be able to carry over the same qualities he showed at Racing Bulls when lining up alongside someone like Verstappen, Herbert believes he can still bring useful assets to Red Bull — even if Verstappen operates in a very similar way, but on a far greater scale.

“He seemed to be the one able to give the team the information they needed to deliver what he was producing on the racetrack. That’s a strength he can certainly take with him to Red Bull. But that’s exactly how Max thinks — just on a much bigger scale.”

Hadjar impresses in desert challenge with Dakar veteran

The Frenchman was recently given a tough test at the wheel of the Ford Raptor T1+, going head-to-head with Dakar specialist Mitchell Guthrie.

As shown in a Red Bull Motorsport video, Hadjar’s task was to get within 15 seconds of Guthrie’s reference time over five laps. His opening effort saw him post a 4m18s lap — some way adrift of Guthrie’s 3m16s benchmark.

Undeterred, Hadjar chipped away at the gap with each successive run, and by his final two attempts he had closed to within just two seconds of the target time.

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