Hadjar confident Red Bull can out-develop its F1 rivals

Isack Hadjar says Red Bull’s challenging start to the Formula 1 season should not be a huge surprise given its championship challenge in 2025, and is confident it can out-develop the rest of the grid.

Red Bull produced an impressive turnaround during 2025, with Max Verstappen finishing on the podium in all 10 of the final races – including six victories – as he missed out on the drivers’ championship by just two points. This year the team has a best finish of sixth in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, but Hadjar believes Red Bull can get back into podium contention as the season progresses.

“That's the end target for sure,” Hadjar told RACER. “Red Bull is a top team. We have top people in the team and I think we should [be fighting for podiums].

"Considering how obviously everyone pushed to fight for the title last year very late into the season, it's no news that it delayed a bit the development for the ’26 regulations. But I think our ramp-up can only be the quickest out of every team. That's the goal.

“We didn't have a car that's fighting for podiums [so far]. I don't think it's far off – I think it's realistic and that's what we are going to try and achieve. So obviously it's a bit painful at the moment, but the best thing we can do is work in the right direction and understand the direction we're taking, and understand why the car is working a lot better when it's going to work better.”

Hadjar has impressed with a top-three qualifying performance in Australia while also outqualifying Verstappen in Japan, but he admits he has new challenges of focus on beyond stacking up against his teammate, as he can influence car development for the first time.

“It's super exciting for me because last year I joined a team that was in their final year of development. So I didn't have any real inputs on how I wanted the car to be in the future, etc., because ’26 was coming," he said. "The goal was to always make the most of the car we had, the package we had, and work to make the best out of it.

“Now it's completely different. You're bringing new pieces to the car, you're guiding engineers in the right direction. And I think it's a lot more of an exciting challenge than just making the most of a car that's not changing.”