Despite being rooted to the bottom of the constructors’ championship, Formula One’s newest team has reason to be optimistic. A number of F1 commentators are claiming Cadillac driver Sergio Perez is enjoying a renaissance after his years at Red Bull.
The Mexican driver was forced to sit out the F1 2025 season after being dropped by the Milton Keynes squad. Latterly, he was not only struggling to compete with his teammate in the same car, but failing to make the top ten in qualifying as well as finishing outside the points.
In 2023, Perez came second in the drivers’ championship, giving Red Bull Racing their first-ever 1-2 finish in the competition. But as the following year rolled on, the Mexican driver was further and further away from big points-scoring finishes.
“Very Different Circumstances”: Perez Refutes Revival Claims
All this led to talk of Sergio’s demise, but the Cadillac driver refutes these suggestions and even the notion of a revival in his driving skills. “I wasn’t able to show my true potential because of very different circumstances in the last six months at Red Bull,” Perez claimed, adding mysteriously, “there were a lot of circumstances behind it.”
Sergio believes a change of environment has made all the difference to his performance and dismisses any suggestion he has changed his driving style. “People think that I’m overdelivering at the moment, but I was driving already at a very high level earlier, given the circumstances I was in. And there’s no difference with this new generation of cars.”
Perez is leading his experienced teammate, Valtteri Bottas, 6-5 in qualifying, but 8-3 in terms of positions finished on Sundays. Cadillac are expected to announce they will retain the Mexican’s services for 2027, although his teammate’s future is less certain.
In a stark change from his final days at Red Bull, Sergio says: “I’m really happy with the level at the moment, with my pace. I’m really happy and I seem to be getting better and better. I just have to keep performing. That’s the only thing that matters to me at the moment.”
Hadjar Solves Red Bull’s Second-Seat Conundrum
Perez was just the latest in a long line of Red Bull drivers who failed to make the grade as Max Verstappen’s teammate. Since his departure, Liam Lawson came and went, as did Yuki Tsunoda. Yet now the Milton Keynes-based team appears to have solved the second-driver conundrum, having promoted Isack Hadjar alongside Max Verstappen.
The 21-year-old has flourished since his promotion from Racing Bulls, where last year he claimed their first podium since Pierre Gasly at the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The cold, hard numbers for this year still have Verstappen as the dominant Red Bull driver with his 8-3 lead in qualifying and an 8-3 head-to-head in Grand Prix finishes.
Yet, in 2025 Verstappen was only beaten once in qualifying by a teammate and finished once behind Yuki Tsunoda in a race on Sunday. Team principal Laurent Mekies feels the progress Red Bull are making includes the development of Hadjar, which is taking shape.
Mekies: “Making Sure We Don’t Miss a Trick”
“On our shopping list, as Oracle Red Bull Racing, we had obviously the power unit, we had getting back to competitiveness as soon as possible, but we also had, ‘We need to sort out the second car’,” Mekies told RACER. “We are conscious that we may not have done things perfectly in the past. And it was absolutely a high priority, making sure we don’t miss a trick with Isack.”
The French team boss is coy over what mistakes were made previously by Red Bull with their second driver, but admits much of the praise for Hadjar’s development should go to the driver himself.
“Don’t get me wrong, the credit needs to go to Isack. He arrived in the UK a few days after he signed with us at the beginning of the year,” says Mekies. “He’s coming to the factory every other week or every other day. If it’s not the simulator, it’s with his engineers.
“He has been taking an approach where he has his feet on the ground, his head’s down, he just wants to learn every day from the team, from Max. And he’s getting better every single time he takes the car out. That’s what we see, a tiny bit better every single time he gets the car out.”
Tactical Advantage: Playing the Two-Car Game
While Verstappen has been the dominant force in Formula One since his showdown in the desert with Lewis Hamilton back in 2021, Red Bull have only won the constructors’ championship in two of the Dutchman’s four years being driver champion. Having a second driver with the ability to contribute to the team’s overall performance is necessary for Red Bull to be constructors’ champion once again.
A competitive driver in the number two seat is also important for strategic reasons during racing. In a tight Grand Prix where two Ferraris or McLarens are racing against Max, without the second driver being in the mix, they can split their race strategies and cover off Verstappen whichever way he turns.
“It’s fantastic news for the team. It is what we need,” Mekies adds. “And it helps also in terms of team cohesion and getting everyone united together because we have two cars, and we can play with the two cars – as we’ve done in Spa, for example, in qualifying.”
At this year’s Belgian Grand Prix, Hadjar expertly gave Verstappen the tow in qualifying, which set him up for a front-row start alongside Kimi Antonelli. Mekies continues: “but not only that, it helps when you have to share the set-up items, it helps when you have to share the tyre test or whatever.”
Raw Fire and Self-Criticism: Why Hadjar Fits Max
“So it’s only the beginning. He knows there is a lot more to be unlocked and that’s the exciting part. But for sure, the trajectory is the best one we have had on that second car for a long time.”
Isack Hadjar’s demeanor—both inside and outside the cockpit—is one of his most defining traits as a driver. He has earned a reputation for being intensely passionate, unfiltered, raw, and fiercely self-critical.
Maybe it is this which has endeared him to Max Verstappen, who speaks his mind and is forever in pursuit of continuous improvement.
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