Mekies and Red Bull 'relaxed' but refuses to answer driver line up probe

Red Bull team principal and CEO Laurent Mekies has refused to answer whether Isack Hadjar will be joining the Austrian team next season.

The French-Algerian has gone from strength to strength in his rookie season at Racing Bulls, putting a disastrous debut at Australia behind him by going on to take his maiden podium at the Dutch Grand Prix with a stunning P3.

That result saw him catapult himself up the drivers standings, taking him all the way up into the top ten with 37 points, 17 clear of teammate Liam Lawson.

Isack Hadjar took his first podium in Formula 1 at the Dutch Grand Prix at just 20 years of age

Mekies remains tight-lipped on 2026 lineup

With this fantastic form from Hadjar in his debut season, plenty of questions have been asked about when a move to Red Bull will be made.

GPblog reported that Yuki Tsunoda and the Austrian team will part ways come the end of the 2025 season, meaning a space will open up for next year.

"We made it very clear, very public, that we have time with our driver decision," Mekies stated to GPblog when asked about whether Hadjar will become Red Bull's newest driver.

"We have enough drivers between the driver programmes to cover quite a few scenarios for next year, and we don’t have real reasons to rush into decisions.

"Yuki has been making a good step in the last three races. We all want more, but he’s doing a good job. He was, for the first time, back in the points after seven races in Zandvoort. He was close enough to Max in Budapest, and had his best qualifying with the team in Spa. So he’s on a positive trend."

Read also

Another blow for Verstappen incoming? Dutchman facing changes in Monza

Can 'Hadjar promotion' hand Red Bull interesting dilemma amid Verstappen's goal?

The form of Hadjar has been extremely promising, with his continued improvement highlighting his talent and underlining him as the next person to take on 'the hardest seat in motorsport' as Max Verstappen's teammate.

"It’s obviously extremely nice to watch Isack’s progress in the Racing Bulls car," continued the Frenchman.

"To see him performing at the level he did in the last race was a fantastic demonstration of how much progress he's made this season.

"But really, we are relaxed about the driver topic, because fundamentally we have all our cards on the Red Bull side, and we can take a few more weeks – or months – to decide.

"Of course, that doesn’t mean we have to wait until the last race to decide, because we respect that it might impact our drivers one way or another. But for sure, we feel we have time right now."