Never mind turning down a potential F1 2025 Red Bull promotion, Christijan Albers has told Isack Hadjar to “get out” of his Red Bull contract altogether if he wants a long career in Formula 1.

That, explained the former F1 driver, is because he’ll have a “hard time” alongside Max Verstappen.

Isack Hadjar handed Max Verstappen warning

Hadjar has been one of the surprise packages this season, the driver vying for rookie of the year in terms of performance, even if Kimi Antonelli is leading that points race.

After an “embarrassing” start to his F1 career, as Helmut Marko called it when he crashed on the formation lap in Australia and walked away from his stricken Racing Bulls car in tears, Hadjar has barely put a wheel wrong.

The 20-year-old has not only broken into the top ten in qualifying five times in nine Grands Prix, he’s also secured points on five occasions to bring his tally to 21.

That’s 11 points more than his first Racing Bulls team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, despite the Japanese driver leaving the team after two races to climb into the race-winning Red Bull RB21.

Hajdar has also put Liam Lawson in the shade even though the New Zealander was initially chosen as Verstappen’s team-mate.

“I think Hadjar is fantastic,” the Dutch pundit said as per GPBlog. “Boy oh boy, he’s going like a rocket, that guy.”

A rocket that has pundits predicting Hadjar will be the next Red Bull driver, replacing Tsunoda either next season or potentially even in the latter part of this year’s campaign.

But therein lies the problem; Red Bull’s second seat.

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Red Bull have run five drivers since Daniel Ricciardo left the team at the end of the 2018 season; Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson and now Yuki Tsunoda.

None of them have been able to match Verstappen with only Lawson’s two-race stint shorter than Gasly’s 12.

But as Gasly went on to shine with Alpine after leaving the Red Bull and Carlos Sainz, Verstappen’s first Toro Rosso team-mate, also did when he moved on, Albers has urged Hadjar to leave Red Bull  – and before he even steps into the senior team’s F1 car.

“Everyone is going to have a hard time next to Max,” Albers explained. “You really have to be careful there.

“If I were Hadjar’s management, I would have said ‘no’.

“If I were Hadjar’s management, I would make sure he doesn’t go to Red Bull.

“And then I would do everything possible this season to see if you can get him out of the Red Bull family.”

“Because if you look at a Gasly, who has come to life [at Alpine] and Sainz, then you have a much better chance of a very long career and that [chance] becomes less and less the longer you stay at Red Bull or Racing Bulls. That’s the reality.”

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has quizzed on the prospect of Hadjar replacing Tsunoda before the season ended in Abu Dhabi.

The Briton refused to answer, saying: “I think I’m going to take a leaf out of Flavio’s book and say, ‘I don’t want to answer it’.

“Look, it’s early days for Yuki. He’s still settling in. He’s been in Q3, scored points, he’s scored points from the pit lane. He’s had a few incidents as well, so he has a long way to go.

“We’ll decide. We’ve got plenty of time on our side.”

While Verstappen is third in the Drivers’ Championship on 137 points, Tsunoda has managed to score only 10. Hajdar is six places ahead of the Japanese driver on the log with 21 points.

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