Isack Hadjar during the Italian Grand Prix. Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

RB boss names key Hadjar’s strength, teases Red Bull decision timeline

13:35, 19 Sep

Updated: 13:58, 19 Sep

bySamson Ero

Alan Permane has weighed in on the strengths of Isack Hadjar, the Racing Bulls team principal also hinted at the timing of his possible switch to the Red Bull Racing outfit.

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Alan Permane during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Photo: Race Pictures

“He needs to deliver perfection.”

- Alan Permane

The 58-year-old, who spoke to the media during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend when quizzed about the strength of the young driver, before touching on the reports of Hadjar’s switch to the Red Bull Racing outfit.

“First strength is he's incredibly quick. And without that, all the other strengths are kind of insignificant. He's got the speed, which we've seen. One thing I like about him is that he's ready to listen. He's ready to accept advice and help. He doesn't want to do everything his own way. He knows he's done well. He has now done 16 races.”

“So he's happy to accept advice and input from others and take that on board and learn from that. We can see sometimes he's a little bit harsh on himself, which he's working on, I think. But strength-wise, I think that would be the main takeaway, that he's happy to learn.”

Permane, touching on Hadjar’s possible move to Red Bull Racing, continued:

“That's a tricky one at this time of year. And fortunately, we don't have to make that decision at this time of year. I'm very sure, and I think it's been said that it will be later in the season, much later in the season.”

“What we have to do for Isack is to make sure that we at the track or the trackside team deliver perfection for him so he's got a car he can perform well in and he needs to perform well."

"He needs to deliver perfection as well, and we've seen when he does that and when we get, when the track, when the car is right and the car suits the circuit and he puts it all together, we can have a super strong weekend.”

Permane speaks on Liam Lawson’s future

Alan Permane also touched on the future of Liam Lawson. The New Zealand driver has witnessed his immediate future largely heralded by uncertainty.

Sharing his thoughts on what Lawson needs to do to secure his continuity with the Racing Bulls team, the 58-year-old stated:

“The same as Isack, the same as all other 19 drivers are trying to do, is execute perfect race weekends. No one's going to be bringing any more upgrades, or I doubt very much anyone's going to be bringing in any more upgrades this weekend.”

“We've got what we've got on the track, we've got the car that we've got, and so it's for him and his engineers and the support we have back from the UK and Faenza in Italy to deliver a perfect race weekend as close to perfect car as we can for him and he needs to deliver perfect race weekends.”

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