Red Bull faces fresh driver headache as Isack Hadjar shines, says former F1 TV presenter

Will Buxton believes Isack Hadjar is the most competitive Formula 1 team-mate Max Verstappen has faced since Daniel Ricciardo.

During the latest episode of the Up To Speedpodcast alongside former F1 driver David Coulthard, Buxton evaluated the current state of Red Bull's driver roster.

With ongoing paddock speculation regarding an exit clause in Verstappen's contract, Buxton noted that the Milton Keynes outfit is once again grappling with an overabundance of drivers for its four available grid slots at Red Bull and its sister team, Racing Bulls.

"Red Bull do find themselves once again in a quandary where they have too many drivers for their seats, whether Max stays or gets swapped out for another driver or whoever, if rumours are to be believed.

"Hadjar, I'd argue, is probably the best team-mate Max Verstappen has had since Daniel Ricciardo in terms of how close he is to him. So, Hadjar's doing a stellar job. [Arvid] Lindblad, stellar job. [Liam] Lawson, stellar job.

"And then you have Nikola Tsolov in F2, who has just won three races in a row, including back-to-back feature race wins. It's very hard to win the feature and the sprint on the same weekend in F2 because of the reverse grid. He did it at Silverstone. That's three races on the bounce. Now, they've got another driver headache."

Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing

Coulthard added: "Yeah, it's a good problem to have. I guess there's always a possibility if they're happy with the others that they could help position him somewhere else.

"I think Red Bull is ahead of the game in terms of its motorsport investment and drivers over the history of time, if you look at what they've invested and now what the valuations are. So, I don't think they're thinking, 'Oh, we're getting to the limit of what we can afford to invest in this.'

"So, it's a good problem to have, but listen for that name. Nikola Tsolov from Bulgaria drives very well. He has a great personality out of the car as well. So, yeah, looking forward to seeing him in Formula 1."

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