Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies confirmed that Isack Hadjar does have a ‘long-term contract’ with the team despite confusion from his driver.
On Wednesday it was announced that Hadjar has been retained by Red Bull for 2027, meaning he will start a second season as team-mate to four-time world champion Max Verstappen.
It comes after Hadjar completed his rookie campaign at sister squad Racing Bulls in 2025, but a stellar year with a podium at Zandvoort earned him a promotion to the main team for 2026.
He was initially only announced for this season with that also being the case for 2027, so when asked to clarify the length of his new contract, the 21-year-old claimed “I don’t know”.
When that was therefore put to Mekies at this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the Frenchman said: “Isack has been with Red Bull for a very long time.
“That means that yes, we have a very long time contract with him as part of him being part of our junior programme. We have activated our options to secure him for 2027.”
Laurent Mekies, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Eric Le Galliot
Hadjar has certainly fared better than his predecessor Yuki Tsunoda, who added to a long list of drivers to have struggled alongside Verstappen after finishing 17th in the 2025 standings.
The sophomore is eighth in the 2026 championship with 71 points despite missing the last three grands prix through injury, having also taken a second career podium at Monaco in June.
“It was really easy,” said Mekies of the decision to renew Hadjar’s contract. “We discussed it a few times here through the season, he has done a very, very strong first part of the year.
“First with his natural speed, then with the way he has integrated with the team. Very quickly in the early weeks he moved to the UK, was pretty much every other week with us in Milton Keynes and then not less importantly, the way he has progressed through the races.
“We have really seen him doing something a bit better pretty much every race weekend and therefore it was a very, very easy decision to make.”
It is now up to Hadjar to continue closing the gap to Verstappen, who holds a 12-3 advantage over his team-mate in their qualifying head-to-head this year, while also boasting 145 points.
Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Joe Portlock / LAT Images via Getty Images
“What we expect him to do is to continue to progress,” added Mekies. “So what we have seen in that first part of the season, him improving his speed, not only the technical feedback, not only the maturity, not only his integration, improving his speed as he has been doing in the first part of the season.
“That’s what we would like him to continue doing through the second part of the year and through next year.
“If he does that, yes, of course, he is going to be very close to Max. So both these things go together.”
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