P1 with Matt and Tommy - Our Reaction to Isack Hadjar JOINING Red Bull for 2026

Episode Date: December 2, 2025

Just when we thought there couldn't be more F1 news to discuss, Red Bull have announced their driver line-up for next season! So how will Isack Hadjar fare as Max Verstappen's teammate? Which brand new rookie is replacing him at Racing Bulls? And what next for Yuki Tsunoda? We've got some answers! Please vote for us in the Autosport Awards 2026! https://www.autosport.com/awards-voting/You can listen to an extended version of every Race Review episode over on our Patreon! You'll also access to every P1 episode ad-free, early access to tickets & merch, and access to our Discord server where you can chat with us and other F1 fans! Click here to sign up now: http://patreon.com/mattp1tommyFollow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the B1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. If you'd thought there weren't enough episodes before, why don't we add another one to the catalogue? Because Red Bull were like, hey, there's not a lot going on for this upcoming Abu Dhabi finale. They went, okay, driver announcement, here we go. It's been of course spoken about a hell of a lot. who's staying who's going and so on and so forth and we finally have confirmation Tommy you know you are a max fan of course how are you feeling knowing that he's not retiring it's good to know

it would be a shame wouldn't it uh still obviously waiting to see whether he will have the number one on his car next year or 33 or three or 69 or whatever he's going to change it to um but yeah it's a strange time for Red Bull to announce their driver lineup, in my opinion, when Max is going for the title this weekend, seems like whether it's a thing to distract from the fact that it's happening and maybe get some questions about that rather than bombarding Max with championship challenger questions, I don't know, but it just seems like an odd time to do it. Yeah, as soon as Yuki did a good sprint race, they were like, now, now is the time to announce. Anyway, the actual news that you've all come here for is that Isaac Hadjar is going to Red Bull Racing alongside Max Verstappen, and Arvid Linblad is to join Liam Lawson at Racing Bulls.

Let's get into our first thoughts. How are we feeling? What are our emotions? For me, it's not a massive surprise. This is what has been rumoured for a very long time. We have spoken on the podcast about Yuki's performances and how it just has not been good enough to. warrants staying in the main team and also with the fact of Arvid Lindblad getting a lot of hype, a lot of attention in the media. We just thought that would be it for Yuki, sadly. And as of

right now, of course, he does not have a seat for 2026, whether he'll get a reserve role or he'll go to a completely different series is yet to be seen. But yeah, I think overall the feelings are this is exciting. I like the fact we're getting another driver up against Max. We're getting a new talent in Arvid Lindblad on the grid for next year, but it's not, it's not taken my breath away from shock. Certainly not. No, I'm not surprised one bit really by this announcement. We've been saying it probably for the last like couple of months because it seemed very likely, you know, had just had a brilliant season. So you kind of knew that he was going to be there. The only way he wouldn't be there, I think if he refused, but we of course had this conversation of like,

you can't refuse it, even though, like, we know it's this poison chalice and all this kind of stuff. And as for Arvid Lindblad, the team have been very impressed by him. They've wanted him in for a long time. He's been doing some F1 tests and things as well. So it just felt like they were always going to put a new driver in as well, weren't they? And that they did. So let's start with some questions about Hadjar and Red Bull first. People on Patreon member Zingy 13. How do you see Hadjar faring against Max in 2026? Will he do any better than any of the other drivers that have occupied

the Red Bull number two seat in recent years? Or is the number two seat simply cursed? Honestly, the odds aren't horrendous for Hajar to do quite well in Red Bull. And I know that sounds weird on the face of it because it's been a

disaster ever since Danny Rick, even the end of Danny Rick's Red Bull career was difficult. But when Danny Rick was in his heyday at Red Bull, that was the last time that the number two thrived in Red Bull to some degree getting victories and so on and so forth. But with this new regulation change, massive overhaul of the rules, I think this really does play into a young talent such as Isaac Hadjar. It plays into his hands, in my opinion. I feel as though it gives him a great opportunity to build with the car from literally the ground up, right? Of course

they will still have four wheels. It's not like they're running six or anything. But there's so much changing that I feel as though Hajar will do the best we have seen since Daniel Ricardo in his heyday, as I mentioned. I totally agree. I think Hajar, of course, he's going to be up against it going against Max Sastappan. He's, you know, been the teammate killer for the last, no, goodness knows how many years. But I think if you look at the evidence of like when the cars change, you go into 2017 that was a regulation change or like a change of like car um you know max didn't you know completely dominate danio ricardo and uh knock him out the park completely then you look at the uh equally when it changed when sergeo peres came in um in 2022 he hit the ground

running very well got a couple of wins looking good and there was all this talk of like Campera's challenge for the championship is only when the car uh you know max max really starts to dominate more and more of his teammates when the development pushes towards the way he likes the car and of course they're always going to do that because it's max estappen push towards that development of the car and the problem we've seen now is red bullers so far down this route with the way max likes to drive that car to suit his driving style and you know there's absolutely every right for them to do that because look how he's performing now no one can jump in and do it so i think a complete refresh where they're both going into

a new regulation it'll be a new car for both of them and before max can kind of stamp his style as much as he wants on the new regulation i think is going to be is going to play in hadja's favor a lot i think he's going to fare a lot lot better uh i'd predict than than the other drivers Please don't let this age terribly and Isaac H.R. qualifies 20th in the first five races. I beg. Question from P1 on Patreon member Tony Soprano. How many more times will Red Bull make the same mistake

of promoting drivers too quickly instead of giving them time to properly develop at V-Carb? I personally don't agree with this one. I know it's a narrative that gets pushed a lot every time they hire a young driver, but they hired Sergio Perez and it didn't work. you know no it's not worked putting anyone alongside max there was or this was the the theory behind alex alburn and all this kind of stuff uh going in and ghastly and the talk was the same question

you're promoting drivers too early they said okay we're going to put in one of the most experienced drivers on the grid and put him alongside max this happened and it didn't go as badly but obviously it got worse and worse and worse um and peris had a really tough time at the end of it it and was dropped. And then even with Yuki Snoda, you can argue that, you know, he'd had a very long time to at racing bulls and V-Cub and Toroso and everything, Al-Fatari that they were. And he'd had a long time to kind of get used to Formula One. And then he made the move up and still couldn't perform.

So I don't personally see it as a mistake. they know when they're ready and this is F1 and it's the way that Red Bull do it like you sink or swim and some drivers have been able to do it some of us haven't and I think this is the time for Hajjar I know it's very early

but I don't know how much he'd benefit from one year in a new regulation in a racing balls like he's proved that he's got talent it's going to be completely different regs anyway so like why go into another car like just learn at Red Bull. I think it's a good idea to promote him at this stage.

On the point of Yuki, I don't think Red Bull set him up for success by the fact that they didn't commit to him from the start of the season. No, of William Lawson and then plonked him in mid-season without any pre-season testing of this 20-25 car. So Red Bull have not done it perfectly by any stretch. They chose Liam Lawson. He was not ready. He was not ready for the step up and he could not perform.

We're seeing Lawson now in the V-Carb doing extremely well. because the pressure is off him. It's a car that he knows, and he's doing pretty well. Whereas now... But is that just the V-carb? Like, sure. Like, do you think, just to, like, counter that?

Like, do you think Yuki would have done better or the same going in from the start? Because, like, Lawson didn't... Like, Lawson was a match shape of... Yeah, I'm not saying... Yeah, just, like, covering that side of it. Like, I don't know Yuki would... I don't think Yuki would, like,

have been really, really good had you had those first two races. Let's say Yuki Snowda would not be in... the Abu Dhabi championship finale fight. I'm not saying that if he had the preseason test. I do think he would have done better or marginally better with that preparation. I think for sure, you know, getting being put into a car that is so otherworldly different to the V-carb.

I don't think it could work for many drivers. But, you know, as you said earlier, you sink or swim in this business. And Red Bull are so hamstrung by the fact, like, Max, Stappen is a blessing and a curse for Red Bull as an outfit because they are literally dependent on him. So what they have to do, and we want to see this, we want to see young talent be given an opportunity, what they have to do is continue to bring new drivers into the outfit to try and find someone that could even come close to Max Verstappen. So you promote Hadjar, if he doesn't do that well next year, and Arvid Lindblad has a great season, I expect him to maybe get

the seat in 2027 perhaps. There's so many moving parts in Red Bull because I think they are very much in big red button panic emergency mode that Max could well leave if Red Bull rolls out the fourth fastest car next year, which it could well happen. So that's what we're kind of seeing before our eyes. As much as it's really exciting to see the young talent, I think Red Bull are in serious concern.

They're feeling like they are going to be abandoned by Max for Stappen at some point if they can't provide a championship winning car. So yeah, these are all sort of trying to find the next Max Verstappen, but realizing that there isn't really another Max, at least not with the style of car that they've developed over the years. Next question, P-1-PATR member, it's Bob 06. How will Red Bull manage the second car next season? Do they give Max priority to try to keep him or give Hajar the same chance as Max?

It's funny. I think we talk about the second Red Bull seat, it's cursed, it's this, that and the other. That only goes so far. You cannot say that the car is consistently throughout an entire season, just not set up for any other driver than Max. Max is a human being. He is a very, very extremely talented human being. And there will be other people that have the same style as Max or can drive around issues. in the car and things like that.

It's not a case of Red Bull sitting down and going, right, do we give Hadjar a chance next year? Yes or no? It's not a give Max priority or let Isaac have a chance. It's build the best car possible. Take Max's feedback because Max is a four, maybe five-time world champion come the end of this week, sorry time me to say it. They're going to take his feedback because he knows how to build and develop a car that he likes.

Hadjar just needs to keep on top of it. Unfortunately, as you said, it's a blessing and a curse. that they've got Max Verstappen because it means that they're always going to struggle with the second seat because of the way Max likes it and also like prioritising Max

some people would say it's silly to when he might leave and there will be that thought in the back of Red Bull's mind that they're now weirdly like they'd push this car so far down that if there hadn't been a new regulation change and Max had left

they would be royally screwed like they would be literally like last in the constructors because they'd have probably ended up with two drivers that didn't know how to drive it and it would have completely screwed them but you have to even though max yeah might leave might decide to go or might even just call it quits and decide i don't want to drive these these cars anymore i don't actually like them very much and i want to go off and do the nerbeck ring or whatever you have to you have to go down max's path he's the four-time world champion and unfortunately for hadjar he just has to learn from from max this happen he he won't be able to you don't

build a car around hadjar he's a fantastic driver and you know he's he's shown that he's brilliant and he is could well be their long-term future but you have to you have to prioritize max and build that car around Max and that is just the way Red Bull will do things even if there's the threat of him leaving they know that their best chance to win races and win championships and challenge yeah challenge for championships

is to just back Max 100% like it's worked for them you didn't you never saw Ferrari you know when Michael Schumack was dominating going oh we should make the car a bit better for the second driver like Massa or Barry Keller or whatever like doesn't happen like that you just have to back your

champion and that's the way they do it and for most of the time for the last four years and we're about to find out whether it works again it's worked. It has worked and the minute you don't prioritise Max he leaves so you are damned if you do, damned if you don't with Max for stab and you have

to go with what he wants but the problem is we've spoken about the weaknesses as a team that that also brings because nobody apparently can drive what Max drives next question people on page remember Patrick do you think we'll see yuki back in formula one again or will it be similar to daniel and become a reserve driver

the only reserve role i see for yuki obviously as we now know all the seats are locked in so he's not got another chance at formula one a reserve driver for ashton martin potentially with their honda deal of course that that would kind of work for them and could potentially see it but I just see Yuki maybe trying something different with this Honda backing

going to like an indie car or something and trying to build a name for himself there it's so difficult because Yuki I think there's hope for Yuki in the kind of way that Alex Albin has bounced back is a good example

but unfortunately for him there's there's not many seats about is there in Formula One and there's a lot of very very very talented drivers who want you know better seats for themselves and there's not a huge amount of room at the end no there isn't I struggle to see where yuki comes back into Formula One personally and it you know there's obviously an understanding of Red Bull and everything we've spoken about with that second seat but if you finish or you lose your seat through a season where you've struggled so massively

you need a team to pick you up immediately and cradle you back to health and happiness like they did with Alex Albon and with Pierre Gazley like they were able to yeah come back from that but if you lose your seat and you're out of a whole season

I struggle to see where teams will then reinvest into a driver that sadly yeah, towards the end, it didn't go well, but I would like to think they also would consider how good he was when he wasn't given the promotion, demotion, whatever you want to call it these days. So yeah, it's sad to see for Yuki, but, you know, did he do enough to say, I am better than Liam Lawson, I am better than an Arvid Lindblag coming through, I am better than Hadjar? I don't think so. I don't think he was a step above any of those drivers, not that we know about Arvid yet. So that's that's where again it's a concern for Yuki because once you're

out, it's very hard to get back in. Okay, let's move on now to Arvid Linblad. Question from P1 Patreon member Tote. Are they promoting Linblad too early or can we expect another Antonelli style season from him? You've kind of touched upon it, Tommy, haven't you, about the fact that this is what Rebel do and too early, too late. It depends. depends on the driver. It fully depends on the mentality that these young drivers show in the junior formulas. You know, you look at what he's been doing in Formula 2. And he's had some pretty decent results in the first half of his season. Not the best in the second half. He's sixth in the championship. But he's clearly shown something to Red Bull about what he's capable of doing. As you said to me as well, he's driven. Formula One cars, he's been able to display some kind of talent. And, yeah, I mean, that Rebel must see something. They're pretty good at spotting young talent.

And we will, time will tell. Time will really tell when it comes to Limblad. But it works in the sense of going into the junior team that there is some level of understanding within the first like two races and then you have to perform fully. Yeah. So I'm not going to say it's too early just yet. and I know it's the Antonelli-style season. Antonelli's had half a season where he's been pretty poor.

So a rookie season pretty standard then. Yeah, it was hard to know if that's like a pro or con that an Antonelli-style season because, yes, he has been brilliant at the moment, but then I had that really poor run. I think Lindblad, he's not like set the world alight in Formula 2, but teams know things, I think, more than what you see.

He's running through his results since round 13. It's not particularly good reading considering he's just been promoted to Formula One. So he's gone retired 12th, 9th, 8th, 17th, disqualified 10th, 6th, second retired, 10th, 6th, 18th 4th.

So it's not the best run of form and yet Rebel have still gone, you know what, we see something. Yeah, and this is what I was going to say here that you look at that and go, oh, he's sixth in F2, he finished Formula 3 in fourth place.

One, won a lot of races, had another equally bad end to the season in Formula 3. But I would argue that there's a lot of drivers that have come in now, and not everyone needs to be a Max Stauffin, Charlotte Claire, George Russell, where they

absolutely like, wow, this is the next amazing talent. Because I would argue, hadjar himself you know yes he finished second in formula two uh fourth in formula three and yeah it did come very close to the the title but i don't think he was like a yeah like a a leclair or a piastri that had like you know dominated up the formula and equally like someone like ollie bearman has been so good in formula one and i think if you hadn't seen him do those performances where he'd done practice sessions with Hasse,

of course he had that amazing opportunity to drive for Ferrari. Is it unfair to say that Olly Berman, I don't know, like would he have got a shot? I think he would have, but I think would have had the same conversation of like, is he ready? But because he actually got that promotion into the seat, and it was like, wow, okay, this kid is actually amazing.

The teams know so much more from data than just looking at like Wikipedia. your results from the F2 because like it's very easy to look at those results like you said and like reeled off the teams know so much more of like their development like their ceiling how much they can develop a car like all this kind of stuff like they they've seen so many drivers and Red Bull themselves and Helmut Marco and that whole Red Bull junior thing have seen that with Max Stauffin they've seen that with Sebastian Vettles so they know what that kind of driver looks like. So they just make that judgment based on that. And sometimes, yeah, these kind

of results, they know more to it than maybe what we see on paper. Yeah, and also as well, you know, I need to mention from a positive side, of course, we've spoken about his difficult end to his Formula 2 campaign, but he stepped into the car in free practice one in Mexico and put it sixth. He was faster than Sonoda by a 10th, of course, run plans, but he still put the car sick in a in a car that he's been in twice i think he was in silverstone as well if i'm not mistaken let me just check the fp1 results for that one as well uh so that one was a bit more steady he was 14th but the thing was right he didn't bin it he didn't make any headlines for the wrong reasons and yeah i think mexico was probably the moment where

red bull saw enough to go yeah i think he's he's ready for ready for a chance next year and you know, congratulations to him. What you're going to see as well is a amazing clip. I think it was from one of Landau's vlogs about five years ago. And you'll see this doing the rounds on Twitter now, because it will be everywhere, and now he's announced. But Limblad, I think he's like 13 at the time, and he goes up to Lando, and he's like, I'll see you an F1 in five years.

And here we are. It's crazy. Nice. We love those kind of stories. Love the confident. confident. That's brilliant. That's great stuff. Next question from P1PATR member, A Good Karen. Now that Lawson is going to finally get a full uninterrupted year at one team,

are we going to see a much more settled and confident driver out of him? It's crazy to think that, yeah, Lawson is going into year four of his Formula One career, and it might just be the first year of his whole career, and he'll probably hope, that he basically stays with the same team the entire time. Because, yeah, an interrupted couple of first years, then the Red Bull Demotion and stuff. Lawson is an unusual one. He's going to be a great benchmark for Limblad with him being in the car last year. Lawson's results, I think, have been more impressive than I think a lot of people think

with how he's done against how Justin's come back in. They've been very similar on pace and a lot of their results and things. and now with Lawson for him weirdly like we've never seen a Formula one like a Red Bull driver get demoted and then go back in

at the Red Bull seat we saw Gazley even when he won in an Alpha Tauri and said I would go back in I'm ready I can do this they didn't they didn't take that risk they didn't put him back in so for Lawson in a weird way he's there to be the benchmark

and this is his year to prove I think in my opinion to another team and for him to do a Gazley and Alburn get out of there because he's not going back to Red Bull and you don't want to stay at V-Carb forever to prove yourself enough

that another team wants him on board I think that's like Lawson's plan here and what he needs to do for the rest of his career well it's a tried and tested blueprint isn't it from the gazleys and the albons that we've spoken about. So, yeah, for Lawson, it's similar to Sonoda in the fact that he was also on the back foot. Yes, you know, going to the V-carb is supposedly a better baseline of a car and it's easier to drive, yada, yada, yada, but he still had to just jump in after what must have been so mentally draining

and sapping that that sort of very short red bull stint that he had. And it took him a little bit of time to probably get used to the car, get back up to speed. But once he did, he's scored in seven races this year. I'd say that for Lawson, the next year is a really important one. Tommy, you sort of said that as well. In getting noticed by other teams, but also he has to beat Limblad comprehensively. He has to do it. I know that it's technically what only is second.

He's not, he wouldn't be a rookie because he has actually done the entire season this year, but just with two different teams. but he's got races under his belt and Lindblad as we've already said has impressed in some ways but also clearly a lot of learning to do

from his junior career Lawson has to beat Limblad for teams I think to take him seriously whether V-Kalb would still continue with Lawson for the years after that should he do a good enough job

probably depends who else is waiting in the wings but I expect him to do better I think Hadjar's done a very good job and made Lawson, you know, probably think, oh, maybe I do need to look around because Hadjar's done a phenomenal job, and he'll be hoping that Limblad doesn't do the same thing. But next year, I think Lawson should, we should improve.

He'll be much more settled, as a good Karen says, and fingers crossed for him, he'll be able to get some better results. And that is it. We are done. We are dusted. Rebel Driver announcement for 2026, locked in. how many more podcasts we will have to wait and see

it's great to continue talking about Formula One because we're going to have a period after Abu Dhabi finishes once we've done our recap content where we all just take a big deep breath and a big old sigh Tommy final thoughts please maybe I'm muted

that would be great you know just you had to end the podcast just that tiny thing a woofie Frank here I didn't want to him to Wolfie Frank didn't want him to interrupt this wonderful podcast. Yes, one, like, it's all locked in now, 2026, can't wait for it, but of course, one more big moment in 2025 still to go.

Final race, don't miss it. Make sure you join us for the watch along and everything, because it's going to be fire. Going to be a big one. It's going to be tense. It might be the most boring Aberdevil race ever, but it's going to be tense. We and McLaren won two, mate, Landonauts Champion of the World, but until then, we'll have good fun. So thank you, everybody, for tuning in to this emergency podcast, and we will see you this weekend for the Abidabby Grand Prix finale. Bye.

Bye. Thank you.