Why Isack Hadjar can avoid 'the Max Verstappen curse' at Red Bull

To Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Sergio Perez, and Liam Lawson, we must now add Yuki Tsunoda.

The Japanese racer has become the sixth driver since 2018 to be Max Verstappen's team-mate at Red Bull - and the sixth driver to either leave or be dropped for not being able to live up to Verstappen's ferocity in the car.

The seventh team-mate, for the 2026 season, will be Isack Hadjar, who after a stunning rookie season has been given the nod to head into the lion's den. 

But unlike the carnage wrecked before him, Hadjar might just have a chance of succeeding at Red Bull. 

Despite what former boss Christian Horner tried to say, Red Bull's cars since Verstappen became team leader in 2019 have been designed around the Dutchman's unique driving style.

Verstappen demands a razor-sharp nose on his car, which responds instantly to his commands on the steering wheel for corner entry. The sharper it is, the faster he goes. 

As Albon explained, after being discarded, drivers are able to live with this to a degree, but eventually the car becomes so nervous on entry, the driver tenses up and doesn't drive to their rhythm and flow.

This can be devastating, and with Verstappen in a class of one since mid-2018 when Ricciardo ran to Renault, it's a recipe for disaster.

But Hadjar can break the chain. 

The all-new cars coming in for 2026 present a challenge unlike any other. Never before in F1 have the chassis and power unit rules changed to this extent at the same time - and that means Hadjar has an opening to stick his foot in.

To an extent, the cars will behave the same as any racing car, some characteristics remain the same, but in terms of set-up, race-craft, energy deployment, it will be all different.

This clean sheet of paper offers Hadjar the opportunity to grow with the RB22, to mould it into his image and not be burdened by the failures of those before, and especially Perez, Lawson, and Tsunoda in the latter ground-effects era. 

There is also the new environment at Red Bull. Lawson was given a one-way ticket to a hiding with a promotion he should never have received at a team where an uneasy truce had broken out after the early 2024 civil war.

Lawson was gone in April, and three months later, the team principal and CEO who had been there for 20 years was too. Behind the scenes, for Verstappen, it would have been water off a duck's back, but for Lawson, such an environment and worries about the car's performance could not have ended well. We saw the end result.

As for Hadjar, Laurent Mekies knows the Frenchman. He has experience working with young drivers through his Racing Bulls and Ferrari roles. He can nurture and allow Hadjar the time to settle in and develop, and grow. 

This is an entirely different Red Bull to Horner's - and that can only be a huge plus for Hadjar as he embarks on the most daunting challenge in F1: Max Verstappen's team-mate.