RB CEO Peter Bayer and Red Bull boss Christian Horner both highly rate Formula 2 title challenger and Red Bull Junior Isack Hadjar, who is firmly in the queue to progress to Formula 1.
Despite having ownership of two teams, Red Bull is amid a driver logjam across the Red Bull Racing and RB set-ups.
With Max Verstappen’s future secure and Sergio Perez handed a reprieve, RB’s Daniel Ricciardo is being prevented the opportunity to progress to the team he left at the end of 2018 and Yuki Tsunoda remains out of contention for promotion.
This leaves the highly-rated Reserve Driver Liam Lawson patiently waiting for his opportunity, with any movement in the Red Bull driver market seemingly grinding to a halt for now.
Making Red Bull’s task of managing its driver roster has become harder given the rise of Hadjar, who leads the Formula 2 Drivers’ standings by 36 points over McLaren junior Gabriel Bortoleto.
Speaking on his future, Hadjar said “Obviously, the best thing I can do is to, it’s like always in my position, just do the talking on the track.
“That’s the only thing I can. And obviously, I can’t tell you anything about what [Red Bull] is telling me.”
Regarding Red Bull’s driver conundrum, Horner said: “we’ve got issues today, but you’ve got to have solutions for tomorrow as well.
“I think we’ve got a tremendous pool of talent, we’ve got experience, we’ve got youth, we’ve got Liam in the wings, we’ve got Hadjar doing a super job in F2, we’ve got Arvin Lindblad who I think is a really exciting talent in F3.
“So yeah, I think we’ve got some great talent in our squad.”
Speaking to Motorsport-Total, Bayer concurred with Horner’s statement.
“We have Hadjar, who is having an incredible season in Formula 2,” the Austrian said.
“We have [Ayumu] Iwasa, who always makes people sit up and take notice. In Formula 3 (we have) Arvid Lindblad. So we have an incredible talent pool.”
Red Bull is accustomed to installing an interim path for its young drivers between Formula 2 and Formula 1 in the form of the Japanese Super Formula.
Drivers Pierre Gasly, Liam Lawson and Ayumu Iwasa have all found experience in the Japanese single-seater series and it is a potential landing spot for Hadjar next term should he win this year’s F2 title.
Hadjar let slip during the post-race press conference following his Feature race win at Spa-Francorchamps that his summer break activities include a trip to Japan, perhaps hinting that his future lies East in 2025.
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