Hadjar: My racing heroes are Ayrton Senna and Lewis Hamilton

Red Bull has entrusted the fiery 20-year-old Frenchman with a drive alongside the equally excitable Yuki Tsunoda at their junior Racing Bulls (formerly VCARB, AlphaTauri, and Toro Rosso), as the organisation’s pipeline of young drivers resumes to flow after the Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez blockage.

With Liam Lawson, also a Red Bull young driver program alumni, stepping up to the senior F1 team alongside Max Verstappen, replacing Perez and freeing up the seat at Racing Bulls for Hadjar

Speaking on the Inside Line F1 podcast, Helmut Marko explained the Hadjar promotion: "First of all, I must say that Isack lost more than 80 points due to technical issues. Maintaining his motivation and speed despite this was already a great achievement. Isack is fast, but he needs to keep his emotions in check and stay focused."

"An example: in Monaco, during a safety car period, he found himself with a car in front of him. He started complaining on the radio, asking why this was happening while the other driver had cold tires. He should have attacked instead of wasting his energy complaining."

"So generally, focus on the important things, make fewer mistakes, like he had a spin at the test in Abu Dhabi, and I think he had also a spin on a Friday outing. So be more consistent, but the speed and everything is here, and the rest comes with routine," explained Marko.

Hadjar drove for the Campos Racing team in Formula 2 where he quickly established himself as one of the most promising young prospects. His trajectory has continued on the sharp upward curve of recent years, with big wins coming at classic Grand Prix venues including Imola, Spa-Francorchamps and Silverstone.

Hadjar follows in the footsteps of F1 world champions Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel, becoming the 19th driver to be promoted to Formula 1 from the Red Bull Junior Program, which started back in 2001.

Paris-born Hadjar, recalls how his passion for racing evolved: "I was always interested in cars but not particularly racing, because of the movie 'Cars'. My grandparents and parents are mainly doctors or physicists so they have nothing to do with motorsport but my dad always watched F1, that’s it really.

"When I grew up I wanted to do go-karts as I started watching F1 at the age of 6 so my parents bought me one when I was 7! This love for racing just came by myself. My first race in karts was September 2012 and I won. My first car race was in the French F4 championship, April 2019.

"My parents are the people who helped me the most during my career by far, as they gave me everything to succeed from the early stages to now, by finding sponsors and people who could help in our project. I basically owe them everything," he added.

Hadjar continued: "My racing heroes are Ayrton Senna and Lewis Hamilton. When I am not racing I like judo and catching up with friends, and I have enjoyed learning English at school, that’s where I get my best grades!

"One of my favourite races was in French F4 in 2020, I started the race from 14th on the grid and made my way up to 2nd. It was at the Paul Ricard circuit, where it’s not so easy to overtake but went up to 4th after a few laps with crazy overtakes, took the fastest lap and overtook for second in the late stages of the race.

"In 2021 I won in Monaco in FRECA (Formula Regional European Championship). For the first time in the season, I dominated. I had a great start and started pulling away after 2 laps setting fastest laps almost every single lap to create a gap of 6 seconds just before the Safety Car. Had a great restart and pulled another gap of 7 seconds, I just had so much fun as I had the Monte-Carlo streets just for me during 30min! It’s mainly because of this race that I got to sign with Red Bull."

"I also enjoy other tracks. I think that everyone knows that the esses of Suzuka is one of if not the best section of corners in the world, mainly because of its flow. But my favourite corner is Degner 1 which is a 90-degree high-speed corner where any mistake leads to the wall. I feel like it's the only track where all the corners are enjoyable to send the car in.

"Of course, I love racing, it is mainly the fact that I get to compete against the best in the world that fires me up. Extracting the absolute maximum of the car or coming back from desperate situations is the best feeling a driver can have," declares Hadjar.

As for his promotion to the top flight in 2025, Hadjar said: “I’m very excited to step into my new role at Racing Bulls, this is huge for myself, my family and all the people who have believed in me from the beginning. The journey from karting through the ranks in single-seaters, to now being in Formula 1 is the moment I’ve been working towards my whole life, it is the dream.

"I feel like I’m stepping into a whole new universe, driving a much faster car and racing with the best drivers in the world. It’ll be a huge learning curve, but I’m ready to work hard and do the best I can for the team.

"I look forward to working with and learning from Yuki, I’ve always looked up to him, he went through the Red Bull Junior Program, like myself, and we’ve shared a similar path to F1. He’s very experienced and will be good to learn from," added Hadjar.

2024
Red Bull Junior Team Driver
FIA Formula 2 Championship - 2nd

2023
FIA Formula 2 Championship - 14th
Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix, FIA F3 World Cup - 7th
F1 - 2x FP1 (Scuderia AlphaTauri, Oracle Red Bull Racing)
Red Bull Junior Team Driver

2022
FIA Formula 3 Championship - 4th
Formula Regional Asian Championship Certified by FIA - 3rd
Red Bull Junior Team Driver

2021
F3 Asian Championship Certified by FIA - 6th
Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine - 5th
Red Bull Junior Team Driver

2020
French F4 Championship - 3rd
F4 United Arab Emirates Championship Certified by FIA - 11th

2019
French F4 Championship - 7th

2018
Ginetta Junior Winter Championship

2012-18
Karting