Hadjar: Red Bull is the natural progression, no need to hide it

Speaking ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, the VCARB driver was flanked by Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly in the FIA press conference and admitted: “When I got signed by Red Bull four years ago, that was definitely the target – to end up in the big team. I’m still on my way. At the moment, I’m happy where I am, learning a lot. And yeah, that would be the natural progression – no need to hide it.”

Hadjar reflected on a difficult weekend last time out in Montreal, where the Racing Bulls struggled with tyre degradation and overall pace. “On one-lap pace, it seems like it was very hard to drive for us. Our ride was quite terrible, but somehow we managed to be in Q3.

"Over 70 laps it’s much harder to be on the very maximum of what the car can do,” he explained. “We are suffering a lot more compared to the other teams in terms of tyre degradation, especially on the Medium, with the graining.”

Despite the setback, the 20-year-old French-Algerian remains optimistic. “It was a very fine margin with the other midfield cars. It’s just that we were on the wrong end of it, which usually we’re on the opposite side. So, we’ll try to turn this around.”

Asked whether the car has been difficult to dial in, Hadjar disagreed: “It’s been probably the most consistent car, performance-wise. We never had bad surprises. You don’t design your car around Montreal, that’s for sure. It’s a very specific one.”

He expects a return to European tracks will suit the team better: “Going back to a more traditional track... we’re going to be much more competitive just like we were in Barcelona.”

Hadjar has previously finished on the podium at the Red Bull Ring in Formula 2 and hopes to make an impact in qualifying this weekend. “If the car is able to go to Q3, then I’ll go to the maximum I can, to top the midfield. It’s a track I really enjoy. I’ve been competitive in the past.”

He highlighted how stepping into an F1 car changes the nature of familiar circuits: “Every time you go in an F1 car on a track you’ve been in the past with Formula 2 or Formula 3, it becomes a different track, to be honest. It’s so much faster.”

In a joint response to the FIA’s updated stewarding guidelines, Hadjar was brief: “Yeah, clear,” when asked if the rules now offered consistency between incident and penalty.

On the topic of overregulation in wheel-to-wheel racing, Isack disagreed with the suggestion: “All the fights I had this year, they’ve been clean and I enjoyed them. I didn’t feel like I was reading a book when fighting them, so, following guidelines. It was really, really natural.”

However, he joined the wider driver concern on the current penalty point system. “I don’t like having penalty points, that’s for sure, because then you don’t want to end up changing your approach. And yeah, I think it’s a very clean field, to be honest. So yeah, it’s not very needed.”

Hadjar also commented on the newly released F1 movie, which he hopes will have the same positive effect on global fan engagement as Netflix’s Drive to Survive. “I didn’t learn much from the movie because we have one driver, so it’s not much we’re learning. I think it’s just good that it’s going to hopefully send our sport into another dimension again.”

With each appearance in the F1 paddock, Hadjar is becoming more recognised. As he continues to gain experience and exposure, he knows where he wants the journey to lead: “Red Bull would be the natural progression – no need to hide it.”