Red Bull extends Hadjar in main F1 team
Red Bull has officially retained Isack Hadjar as Max Verstappen's team-mate for the 2027 Formula 1 season.
The team made the announcement upon Hadjar's return from injury at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, after he'd missed three rounds with a wrist fracture.
He had been having a very productive first season in the team before that, arguably the closest of Verstappen's team-mates since Daniel Ricciardo, though this may have been aided by the competitive re-balancing triggered by the new-for-2026 cars and power units.
Team boss Laurent Mekies says Hadjar "has been superb on and off track, especially considering this is only his second Formula 1 season, which made extending his contract an easy decision".
"The period since his injury has been a difficult one for Isack, but this extension is a testament to how much we believe in him and we can't wait to see him back out on track," Mekies added.
Hadjar has scored 71 points to Verstappen's 145 (over three more rounds) and has scored a podium in Monaco - which was taken away and then reinstated in a drawn-out appeals process over Pierre Gasly's penalty.
Attention now turns to Red Bull's second team Racing Bulls, where rookie Arvid Lindblad is virtually certain to remain but there's more intrigue surrounding team-mate Liam Lawson.
Red Bull has Formula 2 title contender Nikola Tsolov waiting in the wings for an F1 debut, but Lawson has acquitted himself very well standing in for Hadjar and has had a strong season at Racing Bulls so appears to be the favourite to stay on.
