Isack Hadjar is a Red Bull driver who has just landed his first F1 seat with sister squad Racing Bulls, yet he has been open about his admiration for Lewis Hamilton
Isack Hadjar is a Red Bull driver who has just landed his first F1 seat with sister squad Racing Bulls, yet he has been open about his admiration for Lewis Hamilton Isack Hadjar is a Red Bull driver who has just landed his first F1 seat with sister squad Racing Bulls, yet he has been open about his admiration for Lewis Hamilton
The latest graduate of the Red Bull academy to make it to Formula 1 has previously admitted rival Lewis Hamilton is the best driver the sport has ever seen.
Isack Hadjar finished as runner-up in the Formula 2 championship this year, behind title-winner Gabriel Bortoleto. Both will race in the top single seater category in 2025, Bortoleto leaving the McLaren academy to sign for Sauber while Hadjar has been promoted to Red Bull’s sister squad.
But despite having been a member of the Red Bull development programme since 2022, the French-Algerian racer clearly doesn’t let those loyalties cloud his opinions. Speaking last year to Formula2.com, when four-time champion Max Verstappen had only won two of those titles, Hadjar admitted his belief that Mercedes rival Hamilton is the best of all time.
He said: “I grew up watching him. Since I was three years old, I’ve always been a fan of him and rooting for him until he won seven titles. I was really happy to actually be supporting the guy who was winning everything and I think he’s the most complete driver out there.
“Since I started single-seater racing, I got interested in Formula 1 even more and it was clear to me that Lewis was the guy to beat and the reference for me, so I’ve always looked up to him as the GOAT. I really love the guy and he just inspires me so much in everything I do.
“When I got into single-seaters, I actually started to understand how good he was because you’re in go-karts and you watch F1, you don’t really know what it is like to drive a racing car. When I started looking at him properly and seriously, I was like this guy is way too good.
“There are a few races of his that stand out. One I think was when he was fighting Sebastian Vettel in 2018 and the pole lap he did in Singapore was quite special. Brazil 2021 – his race weekend was just outstanding, even though I was rooting a bit for Red Bull. He was just on another level that weekend, I would say it was his best weekend ever.”
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Hadjar’s first shot at F1 comes as a result of Sergio Perez’s exit after a woeful season. The Mexican has been replaced as Verstappen’s team-mate by Liam Lawson, who was promoted from the sister squad which made room for the Parisian.
Lawson’s promotion despite having just 11 F1 races to his name will have irked Hadjar’s new team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, who has raced for the junior squad for four seasons but was still overlooked. Explaining how he was impressed with Hadjar in the post-season test earlier this month, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner offered a hint as to why the Japanese was ignored again.
He said: “Isack, he’s another talent. He jumped in the car, he was faster than Yuki in the test last week, which turned heads. He’s definitely a raw talent – he needs a little bit of polishing, but he has the speed. He was unfortunate in F2 to miss out at the last race due to technical glitches with start-line software, from what I understand, but he’s impressed as well – particularly with his speed. It will be interesting to see how things pan out.”
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Mirror – Sport