Helmut Marko believes after FP2 for the Bahrain Grand Prix that Red Bull have found the “really big one” for the future.

But it is not Yuki Tsunoda nor Liam Lawson, it is Isack Hadjar.

Have Red Bull found the ‘big one’?

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Friday’s second practice proved to be a difficult evening for Red Bull’s two Formula 1 teams, with their best-placed driver seven-tenths down on the lead McLaren of Lando Norris.

And no, it wasn’t Max Verstappen, it was Isack Hadjar.

FP2 times for Red Bull/Racing Bulls

Isack Hadjar: 1:31.238
Max Verstappen: 1:31.330
Liam Lawson: 1:31.706
Yuki Tsunoda: 1:32.024

On a night where Max Verstappen rued his lack of “grip” and Tsunoda blamed a “pretty messy” session with “lot of miscommunication”, Lawson called his FP2″absolute disaster”.

In fact, the only driver from the Red Bull stable who did not complain was rookie racer Hadjar.

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“FP2 was good compared to FP1. FP1 it didn’t make any sense with how hot the track was, so it was not reliable information, I would say,” Hadjar said.

“FP2 made much more sense, and our one-lap pace again we were quite strong.

“I had a good feeling with the car. Still room for improvement, because I would say this was actually our first real session today, so a lot to look forward [to] tomorrow.”

Hadjar heads into Saturday’s qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix chasing his third Q3 appearance of his debut campaign with an eye to converting that into yet more points, having broken his duck at Suzuka with a P8 result.

The one of the rookie star of the campaign, behind Kimi Antonelli but well ahead of the already-demoted Lawson, Hadjar could already be knocking on the Red Bull Racing door.

He’s definitely caught Marko’s attention.

“Hadjar is the big surprise,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com. “This is a circuit he knows but everywhere we come, immediately he’s on speed and everywhere he provides a super performance.

“He is very fast. He lost 80 points in the F2 championship through technical problems or crashes which were not his fault. He should’ve won the championship.

“We knew he’s fast, but that he is so consistent, and that he is driving like relatively easy it also a surprise for us.”

He added to Sky Deutschland: “Hadjar is the surprise. He has completed the fewest test kilometers with Formula 1 cars and still competes with Antonelli and the like.

“He is unagitated and always there. He had a four-tenths lead over Lawson in Free Practice 2.

“Here comes a really big one.”

With Tsunoda potentially just a stop-gap after Lawson fell short in his two races with Red Bull in Australia and China, Hadjar is theoretically the next in line for the Red Bull seat.

Asked about that and the potential of taking on Max Verstappen in a Red Bull, Hadjar told the media, including PlanetF1.com: “Honestly, it seems like it’s really hard to be next to Max.

“It makes me want to go even more, to find out why, you know, what’s going on. But, yeah, that’s still the main target.”

Neither Lawson nor Tsunoda scored a point in the second RB21, leading to questions as to whether Red Bull could yet execute another driver change before the end of the F1 2025 season.

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