Johnny Herbert believes that Isack Hadjar has all the ingredients to have a great future in Formula 1, as the Frenchman impresses in his first season alongside Max Verstappen.
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Promoted from Racing Bulls to Red Bull in 2026 to replace Yuki Tsunoda, Hadjar found himself in his second F1 season in what Herbert considers the “most difficult seat” on the grid.
Before him, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Sergio Pérez, Liam Lawson and Tsunoda all faced difficulties against Verstappen.
Particularly convincing qualifying sessions
But the 21-year-old Frenchman seems to handle the pressure better: “The one who really stood out, and who is probably in the most difficult position of all, is Hadjar, Herbert believes. He has really put himself in a very good position for his career. He has been very close to Max Verstappen. I think on average, there is only one or two tenths difference, which is extremely impressive. What he is doing is remarkable.”
Herbert especially highlights Hadjar’s performance on a flying lap, while Verstappen remains one of the absolute references in this exercise: “He is capable of delivering very good laps with the car in qualifying, which is probably always the hardest part. But he also has a very good race pace. “
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Another quality appreciated by the former F1 driver is his ability to avoid mistakes: “The other very important thing is that he does not make a lot of errors. So he is the one who impressed me the most among all the young drivers. He has a great future ahead of him.”
A relatively flattering comparison
The numbers still favor Verstappen, who leads 8-3 in their Grand Prix qualifying head-to-head and 4-0 in Sprint qualifying. But the average gap between the two drivers is only 0.237 seconds.
Hadjar mainly beat his teammate regularly in Japan, with a 0.284 second lead, then at Silverstone with 0.147 seconds. Conversely, five of Verstappen’s eight qualifying wins were decided by less than two tenths, including only 0.028 seconds in Canada and 0.056 in Barcelona.
Performances that could finally allow Red Bull to sustainably solve its thorny problem of the second driver. To be confirmed in the second half of the championship!