Isack Hadjar admits to being "curious" about the challenge of driving a Red Bull Formula 1 car alongside Max Verstappen amid growing talk of promotion.
However, he rightly also acknowledges he's not yet ready for that chance given there's a key challenge he must face to build experience if he's to be ready.
With Yuki Tsunoda still struggling seven races into his Red Bull stint, which followed Liam Lawson's disastrous two-race spell, Sergio Perez's patchy four seasons at the team and difficult stints for Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly, being Verstappen's team-mate is F1's poisoned chalice. Hadjar is a genuine contender for promotion in 2026 if Tsunoda cannot make a breakthrough, but he's rightly cautious given the struggles of those who have gone before him.
"It's fair to say that, because Liam and Yuki are quality drivers," said Hadjar when asked whether an opportunity for promotion to Red Bull coming up soon could be bad for him.
"I'm just curious, it's the only word I can use, about being next to Max. That's the only thing I can say.
"But, for sure, I don't feel ready. That's a fact. It's good to take experience where I am. I'm enjoying every weekend so much, learning a lot, it's a car I enjoy driving. We'll see in the future. As a Red Bull junior, the trajectory is normal to go there."
Hadjar dismisses the idea of a promotion this year, but even next season would ask a huge amount of him. The Racing Bulls is a relatively benign car, one of the easier, if not the easiest, to drive on the grid and therefore the polar opposite of the tricky Red Bull. He recognises he's lacking in a key type of experience required to get on top of a car that isn't working well.
"I maybe haven't experienced a tricky car enough," said Hadjar when asked by The Race what areas he needs to develop to be ready for promotion. "So far, my car has been very consistent and not the hardest to drive. I didn't have weekends where the car felt terrible, I don't have experience of trying to bring a car from zero to high [performance] in a single weekend.
"Maybe on the technical aspects as well I could still make progress, understanding what an F1 car needs to go faster and so on. I think raw speed, you have it or not. It's more outside of it."
Hadjar agrees that the idea of three years being required for a young driver to be ready for a top team, often espoused by former Toro Rosso/AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost, "does make sense". However, he is also a confident racing driver and pointed to the change of regulations meaning that next year things will be new. Like all drivers, he would back himself to succeed if promoted next year despite recognising it would be difficult.
"There's also the change of regulations so it kind of starts from scratch," said Hadjar about the need for three years of experience. "That kind of makes it easier as well.
"As a driver I'd love to have a fast car straight away. Look at Lewis [Hamilton], he started with McLaren and he did well. He didn't need three years, but after three years he was obviously better."
Albon's advice
Albon knows all-too-well what it's like to go up against Verstappen at Red Bull having spent a season-and-a-half alongside him in 2019-20 before being dropped in favour of Perez.
He spoke of the "knife-edge" quality of the Red Bulls that Verstappen is able to drive but many others can't. However, he feels the experience he's built since then would allow him to make a better fist of it now. And this is exactly the experience Hadjar lacks.
"The cars are on a knife-edge," said Albon of the Red Bulls. "Max can drive it. I can speak from experience, I struggled with it.
"I think with the experience I have now I'd be able to get around it, but it's not something that feels that natural to most drivers and that's what you're seeing now.
"It's also difficult because, maybe it's my own interpretation of it, but the RB is quite a forgiving car. In 2019 [when running as Toro Rosso], it was quite well-balanced, it was very stable, gives you a lot of confidence and I think it's naturally become that kind of car because they always have rookies in that car.
"Then the Red Bull's almost the extreme [opposite] and you're going from one of the cars that is forgiving to tricky, so you're having to adapt quite a lot to two very different cars."
Since losing his Red Bull race seat, Albon has spent a year as Red Bull reserve driver alongside a campaign racing a Ferrari GT3 car in the DTM before moving to Williams in 2022. This experience means he has a better understanding not only of the driving technique required, but more importantly the wider technical methodologies that can be used to work a tricky car like the Red Bull better.
"The driving side is part of it, but it's probably the smaller part of it," said Albon when asked by The Race how he would go about using that experience to good effect.
"The bigger part of it is understanding the cars, the tyres, the engineering side of things, your own driving style as well.
"When you start as a young driver, even in F1, you're still discovering what makes the car click, what makes me click, what compromises or lack of compromises can you make to help or not in that situation.
"Max can drive that car, he likes it a particular way and he can make that laptime out of it, so there's a bit of that going on. And dealing with all the noise of being that number two driver, it's not easy for a young driver to deal with."
The trouble for Hadjar is that opportunities are rarely perfectly-timed. If Red Bull doesn't feel it can persevere with Tsunoda and has to make a change, the lack of obvious and ready-made alternatives means it would most likely turn to Hadjar.
It's not that Christian Horner and Helmut Marko don't recognise the risk, it's simply that, yet again, their collective hand will be forced.
