Hill: Hadjar will have to admit that Max is in charge of everything.

      Isack Hadjar became one of the best, if not the best, rookies of last season, and he was rightfully promoted from Racing Bulls to Red Bull Racing. On the one hand, the 21-year-old driver from Paris insists that his dream has come true; on the other hand, it remains an open question to what extent he will cope with the pressure that inevitably comes with the duties of being Max Verstappen's teammate.

      Few have managed to compete with him on equal terms — perhaps Daniel Ricciardo comes to mind — but, first, that was a long time ago, and second, it ended with the Australian leaving Red Bull Racing. And he left voluntarily.

      Damon Hill, the 1996 world champion and now an expert for The Race, believes Hadjar faces a very difficult psychological task.

      Damon Hill: "Isack will have to accept that Max runs the show in this team, and that he's been assigned a secondary role. And it will be important how the French driver can adapt to that situation. After all, Max certainly isn't going to adapt to a new teammate.

      In other words, can a driver be considered 'championship material' if he is prepared to accept that his lot is to be the number two at Red Bull Racing? In short, if Hadjar has taken this job, he must tell himself: 'I'm here to carry out the tasks set before me, but at the same time to toughen up, become stronger and learn a lot, so that someday in the future I can also become number one.'

      The question is how to achieve that without coming into conflict with the team?"

      Hill discussed this topic on the Stay on Track podcast with Johnny Herbert, who knows from experience what it means to be "driver number two", since in 1995 at Benetton he was Michael Schumacher's teammate.

      "When I was driving for Benetton alongside Michael, in an interview I said that I wanted to become world champion that year," Johnny recalled with a laugh. "I think within a couple of hours the German press ran another piece in which Schumacher, reacting to my words, said roughly the following: 'If he intends to win the title this year, he'll have to temper his enthusiasm.' As events then showed, he was absolutely right!

      And at Ferrari Schumacher's teammate became Eddie Irvine. And what did Eddie do? He immediately accepted that condition, agreed to be number two. And that was probably his smartest decision."