Isack Hadjar backed to buck recent Red Bull trend in Max Verstappen battle

Isack Hadjar heads into his second season in F1, facing a daunting challenge as team-mate to Max Verstappen at Red Bull.

After a strong debut campaign at sister team Racing Bulls, where he scored a maiden podium at Zandvoort, the Frenchman was chosen as the next driver to sit in the seat dubbed the most difficult in F1.

Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, eventually Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson — in only two rounds — and Yuki Tsunoda have come and failed before him, but he may have received his promotion at just the right time.

Laurent Mekies has assumed the role of team principal and has already started to implement changes throughout the Milton Keynes-based team, and with a new regulations cycle on the horizon, the entire team will be working from a fresh piece of paper.

Then there is the possibility of Mekies departing from the Verstappen-centric approach of the Christian Horner era, with a more balanced development philosophy after nearly a decade of each Red Bull being upgraded in the image of the four-time F1 drivers' champion.

Either way, the Dutchman remains a formidable and imperious team-mate, one who very few have beaten, or would be capable of doing so.

Whilst that is not what is expected of Hadjar, in a recent poll by RacingNews365, F1 fans backed the 21-year-old to be the driver who takes the sting out of the poisoned chalice and at least prove a better match for the 71-time grand prix winner.