Hadjar: There’s one king of Monte Carlo and it’s Ayrton Senna

Ahead of this season, not many (apart from him and his inner circle) would imagine that 20-year-old Hadjar would be so impressive, but he has proved his doubters wrong. At the same time, he is making a strong case to be promoted to Red Bull as they struggle to find a competent teammate for Max Verstappen, since they fired Sergio Perez at the end of 2024.

On the streets of Monte-Carlo today (and for the rest of the weekend) Hadjar sported a special edition helmet paying tribute to the late great Ayrton Senna: "I made a helmet because I thought I could do it in Brazil – it makes sense – but I think to do it here makes maybe even more sense.

"Because there’s one king of Monte Carlo, and it’s Ayrton. As a kid, I watched a lot of clips on YouTube – watching him basically demolishing everyone around here. I thought: Well, if I’m going to be a racing driver in Formula 1 and I’m going to race here, I want to pay tribute to him."

"You can see on my helmet the statistics – his pole laps, how many times he won, which years. I think it was a good idea," the Frenchman beamed proudly during the FIA-hosted drivers' press conference, ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix weekend.

As for his sparkling form that has taken just about everyone by surprise, Hadjar said: "I had doubts at the start of the year. I didn’t have much testing, so I was a bit worried – like, can I handle this car? Is it going to be too fast? But now I don’t have any doubts anymore, and I’ve adapted to it quicker than I hoped for. So far, it’s been going better than I anticipated, which is, for me, I can’t dream of a better start."

As for Monaco, the trickiest track on the calendar, Hadjar said: "Monaco treated me well over the years. It’s where I signed my Red Bull contract as a 16-year-old, so it’s definitely a special place for me. What I like about this track is it’s the best qualifying session of the year by far, and that’s what I’m looking for."

StatsF1 show that Senna won the Monaco Grand Prix an unprecedented seven times, and started the race on pole a record five times. His final victory at the Principality was in 1993. In 1994, his death at Imola was two weeks before that year's edition of the race.