Isack Hadjar’s dazzling form at Racing Bulls is inevitably generating rumours that he could replace a struggling Yuki Tsunoda at Red Bull. It’s easy to forget they were teammates at the start of the season.
Red Bull snubbed Tsunoda, who had four full seasons of experience at the sister team and an increasingly impressive CV, in favour of Liam Lawson. With less than half a campaign under his belt, Lawson seemed unprepared to partner Max Verstappen and lasted just two races.
Formula 2 graduate Hadjar almost immediately had a new teammate as Christian Horner carried out a driver swap. In a sense, the chaos on the opposite side of the garage may have helped him, allowing him to operate with minimal attention.
Hadjar had already shown signs that he could cause Tsunoda trouble when he outqualified him at the Chinese GP. And he’s subsequently thrashed Lawson 14-1 across 15 competitive sessions.
After an excellent P7 in Spain last time out, the Frenchman is sitting ninth in the standings with more than double the points of Tsunoda. He’s been formidable over a single lap, too – only Alex Albon (six) has made more Q3 appearances outside the top four teams.
Red Bull engineers thought Isack Hadjar was quicker than Yuki Tsunoda after Abu Dhabi test
Hadjar and Tsunoda were on track together for Red Bull at the post-season test in Abu Dhabi last December. At that stage, neither driver’s position on the 2025 grid was confirmed.
The absent Sergio Perez was widely expected to lose his seat despite signing a new contract. It would be a shoot-out between Lawson and Tsunoda for the vacancy, opening up a seat for Hadjar at Racing Bulls.
Red Bull finally granted Tsunoda a test at Yas Marina, but Lawson was seen as the overwhelming favourite for the drive. Hadjar, meanwhile, had the chance to prepare for his anticipated ascent to F1.
The youngster was surprisingly just under 0.06 seconds quicker than Tsunoda. It wasn’t a direct comparison, with the Japanese driver on 2025 rubber than the 2024 compounds, and testing lap times can of course be deceptive.
However, according to The Race, Red Bull engineers came away thinking that Hadjar was the quicker of the two. Tsunoda, in their eyes, couldn’t match the level of raw speed shown by his future teammate.
Helmut Marko may finally have seen reason with Isack Hadjar
One could question why Red Bull didn’t promote Hadjar straight away when they saw this data. It’s worth stressing that there was confidence in Lawson at this point, even if it was misplaced.
Besides, positioning Hadjar at the de facto junior squad at first seemed more sensible. Even Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel had to wait their turn.
It’s recently emerged that Helmut Marko wants to be cautious with Hadjar, having realised that past drivers have been promoted too soon. Lawson is the most extreme example, but Alex Albon was also called up within half a season.
While his seat is likely safe until the end of the year, Juan Pablo Montoya believes Tsunoda is getting ‘worse and worse’ right now. He’s only scored one point in the last three races, a run that has included three straight qualifying eliminations.
