11/09/2025 13:50
Helmet Marko believes Isack Hadjar "has the mental strength to hold
his own against" Max Verstappen as Red Bull inches closer to
deciding the Dutchman's team-mate for the 2026 F1 season. The
20-year-old is one of three viable options for the Milton
Keynes-based squad, alongside Racing Bulls team-mate Liam Lawson
and incumbent Yuki Tsunoda. This season, the Japanese driver has
failed to impress over the 13 rounds he has spent in the team's
second seat, scoring a mere nine points after replacing the
aforementioned Lawson, who suffered through two difficult weekends
before being demoted in what was a shocking and brutal move from
the six-time constructors' champions. Hadjar is, therefore,
theoretically, the next driver up as Red Bull looks to remedy its
long-standing issue of finding a suitable team-mate for Verstappen.
However, the team may wish to delay his seemingly inevitable
promotion to afford him more time to develop, despite an undeniably
strong rookie season, which has so far yielded one podium finish
and zero Q1 eliminations in qualifying. If that decision is made,
Lawson could stand to be re-promoted if Tsunoda is not retained.
However, the indication from Red Bull is that it is edging towards
elevating the Frenchman. "He certainly has the mental strength to
hold his own against Verstappen," Marko told Kleine Zeitung when
discussing Hadjar. The 82-year-old explained that the Racing Bulls
driver "never blames" his car and only himself, before adding: "He
also doesn't make mistakes, which is really surprising for a new
driver. He improves on every track and is fully involved after a
few laps, regardless of whether he's driven there before. He's a
really fast guy coming along." Whilst providing an insight into
Marko's current thinking, the mental strength argument is the same
rationale Red Bull used for choosing Lawson over Tsunoda to replace
Sergio Perez. The move did not work out, but the New Zealander was
given little time to show his worth, and new team principal Laurent
Mekies might wish to afford him that opportunity, in a departure
from the ruthlessness of the cut-throat Christian Horner era.
Either way, Marko insists Red Bull wants to keep it in the family
when choosing its two line-ups for next season, with the
highly-touted F2 driver Arvid Lindblad an option for Racing Bulls,
if either Lawson or Tsunoda is let go. "Fundamentally, we want to
stick with our driver pool when it comes to the cockpits for 2026,"
he added "If a super talent emerges [from outside the team], we
won't turn a blind eye, of course, but that's not the case at the
moment."
