‘It’s good to have him by my side’ – Hadjar reflects on working with ‘very open’ Verstappen

Isack Hadjar has spoken positively about his experience of working alongside new team mate Max Verstappen so far, with the Frenchman praising the four-time World Champion for being “very open”.

Following his maiden season in F1 with Racing Bulls, Hadjar was promoted to the main Red Bull outfit for 2026, meaning that he will become the latest driver to go up against Verstappen at the Milton Keynes-based team.

Quizzed during pre-season testing in Bahrain on whether he had shared feedback with Verstappen much, the 21-year-old responded: “The work with Max has been very good – he’s been very open so far, so it’s good to have him by my side.”

While joining Verstappen at Red Bull marks a new chapter of sorts, Hadjar admitted that the environment is somewhat familiar to him, having first joined the squad’s junior ranks back in 2021.

The move has also seen him reunite with Team Principal Laurent Mekies, who was leading the Racing Bulls team when Hadjar made his F1 debut in 2025.

“It doesn’t really feel like jumping into a new team, to be honest,” he explained. “I’ve been doing FP1s for this team already back in 2023, 2024 – I [was] signed in 2021 [to the Red Bull Junior Team].

“At the end of the day, I’m working with engineers that I’ve known for a while now. I’ve been on sim support sessions with them for the team, so it made the transition a lot easier, and also having Laurent as a leader is great.

“I made my debut in Formula 1 with him – stepping into my second season with him is good, so it’s been very smooth. I’m very lucky.”

Following his first pre-season testing as a Red Bull driver in Bahrain, Hadjar said of the main target areas ahead of Australian Grand Prix: “The goal for Melbourne is to make the most of the learnings, go back on the sim, correlate all that, and try to make sure that the direction we need to go in is clear.”