After years of treating Max Verstappen's seat next to his as a revolving door, Red Bull finally seems to have found a driver capable of staying put. Laurent Mekies still refuses to use the word "contract extension," but all indications are that Isack Hajjar will be retained in 2027. This decision is presented as logical, which, in Milton Keynes, amounts to almost a cultural revolution.
Hadjar made the second seat acceptable
At Red Bull, to be the teammate of Max Verstappen Until now, it looked less like a promotion than a full-scale scientific experiment: how long can a driver maintain his confidence before being crushed by comparison, the car, and the decisions of the general staff?
Isaac Hadjar seems to have found a fairly simple answer: score points, stay consistent and avoid turning every weekend into a public self-questioning session.
The Frenchman currently occupies eighth place in the championship with 68 points, 24 points behind the leader. Oscar Piastri and 41th behind VerstappenSince the Canadian Grand Prix, he has strung together seven consecutive top-six finishes, including a fourth place in Monaco and three sixth positions in a row in Austria, Belgium and Hungary.
In Budapest, Hadjar finished sixth again, while Verstappen snatched second place behind Lando Norris. Red Bull thus placed both his cars in the top six, a performance that has become unusual enough in recent years to be almost celebrated as a strategic victory.
Mekies confirms nothing… while confirming almost everything
Laurent mekies He was careful not to officially announce the composition of his team for 2027. But the director of Red Bull handled innuendo with the discretion of a neon sign.
He was pleased to finally have " a solid second driver ", noting that the two cars were now closer to each other. He also felt that Hadjar was doing an excellent job and concluded that Red Bull would take a logical decision ».
Translation from the usual dialect of the driver market: barring an industrial catastrophe during the second half of the season, Hadjar should stay.
Because a truly illogical decision would now be to replace a regular driver, eighth in the championship and established in a top 6 dynamic, simply to relaunch once again the great lottery of the second seat.
Even Red Bull might eventually realize it.
Hadjar is no longer just "Max's teammate"
Perhaps the Frenchman's main merit is not having equaled verstappen, He is still far from that, but from having ceased to be presented as a potential victim of the Dutchman.
Hadjar currently fulfills what Red BullHe has long expected from his second driver: to bring home points, exploit opportunities, participate in collective strategies and force opponents to watch two cars instead of one.
His start to the season wasn't perfect, however. He retired in Australia and Miami, then finished outside the points in Japan. But since Canada, his consistency has been a stark contrast to the usual pattern. Red Bull in which the second driver gradually disappears from the front lines, then from the points, and then sometimes from the team.
This progression explains why Mekies emphasizes the work done with the team and with Verstappen. Hadjar He is no longer content with just learning: he is beginning to become useful.
And in the universe Red Bull, where compliments are usually distributed with the parsimony of a set of soft tires, this is not insignificant.
Verstappen remains the central figure… but not completely locked in.
The case Hadjar is all the more important given the future of Verstappen continues to fuel speculation.
The four-time world champion's contract officially runs until the end of the 2028 season. Red Bull had announced it as early as 2022 as the central element of its long-term project.
The situation is, however, less straightforward than a date stipulated in a contract. Performance clauses that could allow for early departure are regularly mentioned, even if their precise content is not public. Mekies recently asserted that Verstappen had expressed his desire to continue with Red Bull, while acknowledging an obvious fact: to be happy, the Dutchman needs a fast car.
In other words, Hadjar can secure his own future, but Red Bull must still secure that of its leader by producing something other than reassuring statements.
For once, Red Bull could avoid complicating the obvious.
Hadjar has not yet won a Grand Prix, does not pose a threat Verstappen to the championship and doesn't transform the RB22 into a winning machine. But it brings something that Red Bull seemed to have forgotten in its obsessive search for the next marvel: stability.
Retaining him in 2027 would therefore be neither a spectacular gamble nor a stroke of genius. It would simply be recognizing that a young driver is progressing, scoring points, and deserves more time. A perfectly commonplace policy in most teams. Red BullIt would be almost revolutionary.
