For all Red Bull's problems at the start of Formula 1's new rules era, it can take some relief from the fact there is not one more.

The troubles of the second car have been a recurring narrative for Red Bull for many seasons, even when it was dominating championships.

Fortunately, in a year that has begun with an uncompetitive car and a disillusioned Max Verstappen, Isack Hadjar has offered Red Bull some comfort.

It would be a stretch to declare Hadjar's start to life with Red Bull a rousing success. He was lucky to score his first points in China after the mistake he made on the opening lap, spinning in a fight with Haas driver Ollie Bearman, and a muted 12th in Japan meant he did not add to his early tally there.

However, circumstances worked against him at Suzuka, where an ill-timed safety car denied him a shot at a lowly points finish and a supposed battery issue also greatly frustrated him. This makes it quite hard to really adjudicate on Hadjar's all-round assimilation at Red Bull, beyond the obvious that there's a car limitation before there's a driver one.

As he made plainly clear at Suzuka: "We've got no load and that's it. It goes into one direction or the other very, very quickly. FP3 was the opposite balance; we go into quali, it's the other way around."

Asked by The Race if that means you end up discovering this car's balance on the lap itself, Hadjar replied: "Exactly. And then you can f**king crash. Because you have no idea! So you have to reset your expectations all the time. It's not nice."

Still, even Hadjar - famously self-critical for someone so young and new to F1, now in his second season - is happy with the job he's doing in qualifying. This pace has been the big positive, even though it is tempered by the fact Red Bull's had a midfield car for two of the three weekends so far.

Hadjar was a mighty third in qualifying in Melbourne, where an early engine failure denied him a possible top-five finish. In fact he has made it into Q3 at all three events: Verstappen's only managed it once, in China.

That early qualifying head-to-head success blitzes what Hadjar's immediate predecessors achieved in 2025, when Liam Lawson was so far off he got dropped after two races and Yuki Tsunoda very briefly showed flashes of being able to match Verstappen but almost never when it mattered.

Especially because if there is anything the RB22 shares with its predecessor, it's that it is not easy to drive. "It's a big stretch to compare last year's car to this one, it's completely new," argued Hadjar. "Last year's cars was fast. It was hard to drive but fast. Our car is hard to drive and slow."

The big thing for Hadjar is that he's made himself not a problem as well. However, therein does like a caveat to the positive start: aside from Verstappen seeming a little out of sorts - and having his motivation tested - Hadjar is driving a clearly limited Red Bull. And a good team-mate has previously been able to ruffle Verstappen's feathers when the car's had problems and been slow.

It is very easy to forget how quick Sergio Perez was at times alongside Verstappen, particularly early in 2022, 2023 and 2024 before car development inevitably moved the balance and tolerance demands in Verstappen's direction. When Verstappen was somewhat constrained by what the car could do - and/or when the car was kinder to Perez's sensitivities - there was very little between them. In fact, the gaps and results at Perez's best are not dissimilar in principle to what Hadjar has now.

Hadjar believes he has started life at Red Bull as well as he hoped but better than he expected to start with, given just how close he is to Verstappen. But even Hadjar has admitted one question is what happens when - or if - the car gets much more competitive?

Previously, a raised ceiling unleashed Verstappen and left his team-mates in the dust. Hadjar believes there is no reason he cannot continue his trend relative to the four-time world champion with a more competitive car (why would he think otherwise?) but it is an unprovable hypothesis for now.

What may work in his favour is just how unhappy he is with the RB22, while getting good results relative to Verstappen. It is not as though Verstappen is the miserable party and Hadjar is toeing the party line, happy with the chance he's been given, and cashing in on the number one driver's disenchantment by stealing great results where he can. This is not quite a 2014, Daniel Ricciardo vs Sebastian Vettel repeat.

Just look at what Hadjar said after the Suzuka race: "The chassis side is terrible. Just slow in the corners for once." Or after qualifying: "On my first lap, I thought I was going to crash straight away; it was just sliding everywhere, [even when] I was barely turning the steering wheel."

Hadjar will believe that if he can be this competitive versus Verstappen when he is also this unhappy in the car, it stands to reason that a better car will be good for him too. A rising tide raises all ships, after all. The big question though - aside from how Hadjar will manage! - is whether Red Bull can make that happen this season.

"The only positive right now is that I can drive the car fast," said Hadjar at the last race.

"We have no lead on how we can make the car faster."