Isack Hadjar’s three-word response on surpassing Yuki Tsunoda in the Red Bull

Isack Hadjar says he doesn’t know if he could do better than Yuki Tsunoda in the second Red Bull, but he’d definitely like the opportunity to see what he could do.

Red Bull’s second race seat alongside Max Verstappen has been a problem since 2019, as his team-mates have not been able to match his results in the Red Bull F1 cars.

Isack Hadjar to Red Bull?

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

While the Dutchman has claimed four Drivers’ Championship titles on the trot, and this year sits P3 in the standings, his team-mates – Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda – have managed a combined total of five Grand Prix wins, all five courtesy of Perez. Verstappen has 60 wins since Gasly’s stint in early 2019.

Perez lasted the longest of five and raced for the team for four seasons before his contract was cut short at the end of the F1 2024 season as he slumped to eighth in the Drivers’ standings, which cost Red Bull the Constructors’ title.

Today it’s Tsunoda who sits in the second RB21, but like his predecessors he’s struggling in a car that’s more suited to Verstappen’s driving style with Albon explaining the Dutchman likes a car that is “eye-wateringly sharp”.

It’s meant that while Tsunoda walked away from his post-season Abu Dhabi test last season bullishly declaring the Red Bull F1 car “suits my driving style”, since his promotion, he’s realised it’s a lot more difficult to drive than expected.

He’s scored just seven points in his 10 outings for Red Bull and now finds himself trailing both Racing Bull drivers, Hadjar and Lawson, in the standings.

Hadjar, who has impressed in his rookie season with 21 points, is reportedly the next in line for a Red Bull race seat should the team decide to drop Tsunoda, this season or at the end of the year.

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Asked if he believes he could do a better job than Tsunoda in the Red Bull, he honestly replied: “I don’t know.”

Speaking with the media, including PlanetF1.com, Hadjar conceded he didn’t know what Tsunoda’s issues were at Red Bull given he was fast during their brief two-race stint as Racing Bulls team-mates at the start of the year.

“I don’t know what’s going on over there, obviously,” he said. “Only thing I can tell is Yuki is very fast.”

The Red Bull seat could be Hadjar’s in the future, but while it’s been dubbed ‘poisoned’ and ‘cursed’, the 20-year-old is keen to see what he could with it.

“When I signed the contract with Red Bull four years ago the goal was to get to Red Bull. So hasn’t changed,” he said.

“It’s definitely interesting. I like to, I would obviously love to, out of curiosity, go and have a look for myself.”

He, however, has yet to have the conversation with Red Bull.

Hadjar is unlikely to get the opportunity to race the Red Bull this season after Helmut Marko ruled out making a driver change.

“The plan is for him [Tsunoda] to finish the season, nothing has changed,” the Red Bull motorsport advisor told Kleine Zeitung. “We also have no alternative.

“There have been talks with him, also with the engineering team. We want to stabilise him and no longer set up the car so hard towards Max. That could help him.”

Tsunoda is out of contract with Red Bull at the end of this season, with Hadjar already tipped to replace him.

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