£800k-a-year F1 driver may not survive the ‘savage’ environment at his new team in 2025

McLaren and Aston Martin are the only teams who have retained the same driver pairing for the 2025 Formula 1 season. Two outfits have changed their line-ups completely.

McLaren believe that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are the strongest duo on the Formula 1 grid. At Aston Martin, new signing Adrian Newey doesn’t think Lance Stroll is good enough, but he’s protected by his father’s ownership.

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso is safe in the other seat. Alonso may have been interested in vacancies at Mercedes and Red Bull, but they went to Kimi Antonelli and Liam Lawson in the end.

Alpine parted ways with Esteban Ocon and promoted reserve driver Jack Doohan as his replacement. Ocon switches to Haas, where he’ll race alongside Oliver Bearman in an all-new combination.

Haas surprisingly lost Nico Hulkenberg, who joins Gabriel Bortoleto at Sauber in a veteran/rookie dynamic. Williams pulled off perhaps the biggest coup of the driver market by signing Carlos Sainz.

And that just leaves the newly-rebranded Racing Bulls, who were waiting on Red Bull before they finalised their plans. Lawson’s ascension means Isack Hadjar gets the spot next to Yuki Tsunoda.

Isack Hadjar may not last until the end of the season at Racing Bulls

Speaking on ESPN’s Unlapped podcast, journalist Nate Saunders suggested Red Bull weren’t planning to hire Hadjar for 2025. While Racing Bulls are nominally a separate entity, there’s a clear link between the two line-ups.

Hadjar has indirectly profited from Sergio Perez’s collapse. That created an unexpected vacancy at Red Bull, which in turn opened up a spot at Faenza.

The Frenchman finished runner-up in the F2 championship last season, though his chances of beating Bortoleto were extinguished when he stalled on the grid at the finale in Abu Dhabi. For Saunders, that raises concerns.

He doesn’t see an obvious alternative to the 20-year-old, but he still thinks Hadjar, who will earn £800k this season, isn’t safe until the end of the year. That reflects the ‘cut-throat’ nature of Red Bull.

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“If you’d wound the clock back 12 months and said to Red Bull ‘you’re going to put Hadjar in the car in 25’, I don’t think they would have felt that was the trajectory that he was on at that point,” Saunders explained. “He did impress in F2.

“In the finale, he stalled on the grid. It was just maybe a sign that under pressure, you do something like that. The last person you want to think that you can’t perform under pressure is Helmut Marko.

“While the pressure is off in terms of there’s no-one there behind him, that Red Bull environment is savage for young drivers. Maybe not under the pressure [Jack] Doohan’s going into, but he’s another you look at and you do wonder, it wouldn’t surprise if he didn’t see out the season, just purely because that’s how Red Bull’s always operated. It’s been very cut-throat.”

Isack Hadjar’s performance in private test may raise eyebrows at Red Bull

Saunders may be wrong to suggest that there isn’t a clear plan-b to Hadjar. Red Bull are secretly expected to promote Arvid Lindblad sooner or later.

He doesn’t turn 18 until August, but already Red Bull are training Lindblad in private tests. This is to ensure he has the superlicence points required to step up from F2.

Still, Hadjar was extremely consistent in a private test at Imola recently. That may have raised eyebrows among the internal sceptics, suggesting he could be a surprise package this year.

The driver under most pressure right now is unquestionably Doohan. Reports claim Doohan has only signed a six-race contract, whereas Hadjar’s deal is believed to cover the entire season.