Red Bull boss issues new driver decision update after sensational Hadjar podium

Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies is not feeling any pressure to make a decision over which driver should partner Max Verstappen from F1 2026.

Racing Bulls star Isack Hadjar has long since been in the conversation due to his impressive rookie campaign, but the Red Bull promotion calls grew significantly louder after the Dutch Grand Prix. At Zandvoort, Hadjar scored his very first F1 podium, and Racing Bulls’ first since 2021.

Isack Hadjar: Future Red Bull star?

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

While it may have been due to Lando Norris’ retirement that Hadjar was promoted to the podium, make no mistake about it, the achievement was earned.

Hadjar qualified a career-best fourth for the Grand Prix, placing himself on row two alongside Red Bull’s reigning four-time World Champion Verstappen. He kept the Ferraris and Mercedes at bay, and when Norris ground to a halt in the closing stages of the race, Hadjar was right there to capitalise and score his first podium in Formula 1.

Hadjar’s ex-Racing Bulls team-mate Yuki Tsunoda is driving for his future at Red Bull, and perhaps in Formula 1. His struggles to clearly improve on what Liam Lawson produced in his short Red Bull spell means Tsunoda’s place is under threat beyond the end of the season.

When Mekies met with the media, including PlanetF1.com, post-race, it was put to him that Hadjar being promoted to a Red Bull F1 2026 seat seems a no-brainer decision.

He replied: “You know, as much as we like the emotion of the race by race feeling – we have a feeling in Budapest, we have another feeling here – the truth is, if you step back, look at it from a Red Bull perspective, it’s our drivers. We have them all under contract.

“It’s only us making the decisions. Us meaning the Red Bull group. Why would you put yourself under pressure based on the results of another?

“So, hence, the simple true story is that we will take our time. There is nine races to go. I’m not telling you that we’ll wait until the last race, because also, there is a dynamic by which you want to let your driver know. But we have time.”

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Mekies has overseen three grands prix so far as Red Bull team boss, and in that time has seen positive steps made by Tsunoda.

While Tsunoda was eliminated in Q2 at Zandvoort – his deficit to Verstappen expanding to half a second – he did snap a run of seven grands prix without a point by finishing ninth.

Asked what Red Bull wants to see from Tsunoda ahead of their F1 2026 decision, Mekies said: “At first, you can always do more, always. We can do more. He can do more, always.

“He’s doing more and more. We are trying everything we can to support. I think it’s still a positive trend for Yuki. I think it’s his first time back in the points after seven races, I’ve been told.

“Spa was a step forward. Budapest, as much as we were poor as a team, was a step forward in terms of the gap to Max. Today, he’s P9. With a bit more luck in the Safety Car, could have been a P8 or P7, even though the pace is difficult to evaluate.

“I think we just want to see him continue to progress, continue to close the gap to Max. That’s the main priority, and that he continues to score points, because that’s ultimately what it is about.”

Tsunoda is the lowest classified full-time driver in the F1 2025 standings. Below him only is Jack Doohan, and the driver who replaced him after six races at Alpine, Franco Colapinto.

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