Isack Hadjar stepping up as Verstappen’s Red Bull future faces pressure

The Verstappen Red Bull future questioned debate has reached a whole new level. After another painful weekend at Silverstone, the four-time world champion finds himself winless, frustrated, and possibly on the verge of the biggest move of his career, with Isack Hadjar stepping up to lead the Red Bull team.

Verstappen’s Red Bull future questioned after Silverstone crash

Max Verstappen was running a strong third place with just four laps to go at the British Grand Prix. Then disaster struck again. Verstappen suffered a rear wing failure for the second race weekend in succession. He had worked his magic to sit inside the podium places in third at Silverstone when, with four laps to go, a rear wing issue pitched him off track and into the gravel.

Silverstone’s DNF was his third of the season as he extended his winless run to nine, and there has been chatter that the Dutchman is weighing up his future. The mood in the Red Bull camp is tense. Persistent balance problems and the rear wing issues, the latter of which Verstappen said are “becoming dangerous for myself”, are hurting them.

After the race, Verstappen said: “At the moment, I’m honestly just looking forward to going home and not thinking about Formula 1.”

That quote tells you everything. This is a man at his limit. The DNF left Verstappen down in seventh place in the drivers’ standings on 76 points. He is now 103 behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli.

Crucially, the result officially confirmed that Verstappen will not be in the top two when the summer break starts after races in Belgium and Hungary, which means a clause in his contract will be triggered that allows him to move to another team in 2027.

How Hadjar is stepping up as Verstappen’s pressure grows

While Verstappen crashed out, his young teammate Isack Hadjar quietly delivered. Hadjar was arguably the lead Red Bull driver at the British GP. He handed team-mate Max Verstappen his first-ever qualifying defeat at Silverstone, and followed it up with a solid fifth-placed finish at the chequered flag.

Hadjar described the British Grand Prix as a “waste of a race” despite scoring a fifth-place finish for Red Bull. The result marked his fifth-straight point-scoring result, all of which have come inside the top six.

Hadjar remains the only driver outside of the front-running pairs of Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren to reach Q3 at every round so far in 2026, aside from his disqualification from qualifying at the 2026 Miami Grand Prix.

Our team has been watching Hadjar closely across recent races, and what stands out is how he continues to grow under pressure. In free practice sessions, he has been right on Verstappen’s pace. In race trim, there is still a gap to bridge, but the direction of travel is clear. What makes Hadjar different from all of Verstappen’s previous teammates is his mental resilience. Drivers like Sergio Pérez crumbled under the psychological weight of being next to the best on the grid. Hadjar is holding firm. He is not just surviving alongside Verstappen. He is getting better, race by race. We will keep a very close eye on him, especially now that tensions inside Red Bull Racing are rising sharply with Verstappen’s potential exit looming.

Button says Mercedes is the logical next step

With the Verstappen Red Bull future questioned louder than ever, former world champion Jenson Button has given his verdict. It is direct and blunt. 2009 Formula 1 champion Jenson Button believes Max Verstappen is growing increasingly frustrated and “lonely” at Red Bull, predicting that the four-time champion will actively seek to exit the team. He tipped Mercedes as the most likely destination for Verstappen.

Button said: “He puts a happy face on a lot of the time, but I think he’s very frustrated with the situation. A lot of people that he’s worked with for many years and won championships with have left and gone elsewhere. It must be very strange, it must feel kind of a bit lonely in that team for him, everyone’s brand new around him, so I think he’ll be looking elsewhere, I really do, for next year.”

And where does Button think Verstappen should go? “The team that, if I was his management, I would want to put him in is Mercedes, obviously alongside Kimi [Antonelli] or alongside George [Russell], whichever one they choose to move on,” Button said. It is easy to see his logic. The Brackley outfit has won seven out of the first nine grands prix of the 2026 season. You can read more about how Mercedes is currently solving its technical challenges as it builds on that dominant form.

What happens next for Verstappen and Red Bull?

With the Verstappen Red Bull future questioned from all sides, the pressure on Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies is enormous. Reacting to Verstappen’s criticism, Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies said the Dutchman was “right to be unhappy,” adding: “It is very unusual. It is very unpleasant for drivers to be let down by the car in high speed corners in two consecutive races, let it be for two different reasons.”

Red Bull still has historical form to point to. You only have to look at the last six months of last year to see that Red Bull are more than capable of getting on top of their problems, with Verstappen winning six of the last nine Grands Prix and almost snatching the title away from Norris. But Verstappen is also expecting Red Bull to struggle at several other circuits later this season: “Spa will basically be the same, and Monza as well. That’s a shame because Spa is obviously one of my favourite tracks.”

For now, Verstappen’s preferred outcome is still to stay and fight. His preference would almost certainly be to stay at Red Bull. But with an exit clause now active, everything could change very quickly. You can follow the full story of the potential Verstappen to McLaren rumours as silly season kicks into high gear. With Belgium and Hungary coming up, the next few weeks will be defining for everyone inside the Milton Keynes garage.

Stay up to date with every twist in the championship on our latest Verstappen news page.