Isack Hadjar interview: Red Bull’s surprise F1 rookie reveals all

The 20-year-old French-Algerian rookie has wasted no time standing out. He had a rocky start in Melbourne, where he crashed on the formation lap, but has since emerged as one of the most talked-about newcomers on the grid, with Q3 appearances in China and Japan, as well as points finishes in Japan and Saudi Arabia. His speed and consistency have already earned praise from Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, who called him “the surprise of the season”.

Motorsport.com sat down with the Racing Bulls driver to reflect on his journey to the top — and the road that brought him here.

A spark from Pixar

It all started with a Disney Pixar classic. “It was just watching the movie Cars at home,” Hadjar said about the moment he fell in love with motorsport. “I was like two years old. I remember the moment we bought the DVD. It’s crazy that I can remember that!  And after that I started watching Formula 1 on TV. So yeah, that’s how it started.”

By the age of six, the Paris-born youngster was already in a kart. “There was a school near Paris, an indoor karting track. I went there with my dad, and I was really good at it the first time,” Hadjar recalled. At around eight years old, he began karting competitively. “My first few years karting were amazing – like the first two or three seasons.”

But things got tougher as his karting career progressed. “When we went to the national championships and higher up the ranks, it became really frustrating, because I didn’t have the mileage nor the chassis nor the engine – like the right package – to go fast. Of course, my parents at this time were both more keen on me studying than anything else. So when I was approximately ten to thirteen years old, I couldn’t compete with the other guys.”

Hadjar grew increasingly frustrated that success depended more on budget than on talent. “I always wanted to compete in the European and World Championships, which I managed to do in my final year of karting. But that was all we could afford. A go-kart season, when you do a full season, is more than 20 to 24 races. But I was doing eight. I was only doing the main ones. So I was just a bit too unprepared and because of that, it was never going well. So my karting career was a bit frustrating, even though I had a lot of fun in the first few years.”

Best friends and rivals

Asked about his main rival in karting, Hadjar didn’t hesitate to name Sami Meguetounif, now racing in Formula 2. “He’s a good friend of mine – probably my best friend in motorsport. We had a lot of battles together in the national championships. But always enjoyable ones.”

The friendship with Meguetounif started in 2015. “It’s now ten years since we became friends. I met him and his dad in Le Mans and he was like: ‘Are you Algerian?’ I said: ‘I’m French but I have Algerian roots.’ And he said: ‘Yeah, I’m Algerian!’ That was really funny. I think it’s a really nice story that we have together. And I’m waiting for him to get to F1,” Hadjar remarked. 

Hadjar has no doubt the two will meet again in Formula 1. “He is very fast. He was a bit less fortunate than me in his career path. I would say – and he knows – I had better career choices. And that’s really key – and timing is key as well. But he has all the qualities to be here.”

A better fit in cars

Hadjar’s career began to take off after switching to cars. He scored wins in French F4 before moving up to the Formula Regional European Championship in 2021 with R-ace GP. “I think in cars you can make a much bigger difference as a driver. It’s really simple to be fast in karting. If you have the right engine and chassis, then it’s super easy to be winning with one or two tenths. In cars there’s a lot to play with to be fast. And besides that, I just felt more comfortable in F4 than I did in go-karts.”

A breakthrough moment came in Monaco, where he won a FRECA race from pole position. “I remember everything of that day. There was a lot of pressure. It was a damp track to start with, and we were on slicks. So the conditions were tricky, but it dried up pretty fast and I dominated the race. I remember setting fastest lap after fastest lap, as there was no degradation whatsoever. And I won the race. It was the most enjoyable race I’ve had.”

After the race, he got a phone call from his mother. “She said that Helmut Marko wanted to meet me at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel.” It was the first time there had been contact with Marko and Red Bull. “So I met him and he said that he would send me a contract. And that was it – super easy. That was a really good day!”

Accelerated development

With Red Bull’s support, Hadjar stepped up to F3 in 2022. He won two sprint races and one feature race, and finished fourth in the standings, earning promotion to F2 the following year. In 2023, he also had his Friday practice sessions in F1: in Mexico for AlphaTauri and in Abu Dhabi for Red Bull.

In 2024, Hadjar won four feature races and went into the final round in Abu Dhabi with a shot at the title – only to stall at the start of the race. “Worst moment of my life,” he said on the team radio.

“Yeah, but that’s not true, actually,” Hadjar clarified. “I’ve had way worse moments. I think at this point, I knew my future. Of course, losing like that was painful, yes. But it was not the most dramatic one. The worst part was probably not being able to fight for something – that’s the worst feeling. But I’ve had worse moments where I thought: ‘OK, I’m not making it to Formula 1. This is big, this is like really bad.’ But this had no impact whatsoever. But as a fighter, as someone who wants to win, that hurt a lot.”

What probably also eased the pain was the fact that two days later, he would be back behind the wheel of the Red Bull RB20 in the post-season Abu Dhabi test, after having already done Friday sessions that year, at Silverstone and Yas Marina.

Personal engineer

Hadjar says he has grown a lot as a driver since Red Bull picked him up. “Well, I would say the Isack from FRECA, four years ago now, is worlds apart from me now, in terms of level of driving and capacity, mental capacity as well. I can tell the progress. And, of course, the structure at the Red Bull Junior Team on the technical side is really, really strong. I had – and still have nowadays – all the tools to understand and improve.”

Hadjar has been working closely on his development with Guillaume ‘Rocky’ Rocquelin, Sebastian Vettel’s former engineer at Red Bull. “He was like my personal engineer off the track. I could come to him with any questions and talk to him about anything that happened on the weekend. So with everything that cropped up, I would be going to him. I still do now.” Although both are French, Hadjar doesn’t see this as a particular advantage of their relationship. “He speaks better English than French now,” Hadjar laughed.

No Monday morning calls

Being a Red Bull junior usually comes with Monday morning calls from Helmut Marko after each race weekend. Not so for Hadjar. “I didn’t have those calls,” he revealed. “So with me, it was not as bad as with some of the other guys. We have an honest relationship and, honestly, I had more laughs with him than anything else.” Marko didn’t call later in the week either, if you wondered. “He doesn’t call me at all sometimes! No, he has never been rude to me. Even when I had my awful first F2 season, he kept me in the programme.”

Hadjar relishes the moment when he was told that he would be racing in F1 in 2025. “I mean, F1 was always the goal. Since I was a kid. I never thought about anything else. But my parents – with my mom also acting as my manager – always told me that I just had to focus on what I was doing in the present and not worry what I was going to do afterwards. And I think they did a fantastic job with this approach.”

Much was said of a comment Marko made on Austrian TV after Hadjar’s crash in Melbourne. He said it was ‘a bit painful’ how Hadjar walked back into the F1 paddock, devastated by what just happened. “Yeah, it was painful, I agree with him,” Hadjar said. Asked what Marko told him afterwards, he replied: “He didn’t care about my crash. This kind of thing, it can happen to anyone. He was not mad or anything. He was just like: ‘OK, we’ll be better in China’. That was it.”

Le Petit Prost

Hadjar carries the nickname Le Petit Prost. “Where does it come from? Everyone asks me this, but I have no idea,” Hadjar laughed. “I think it comes from the fact that I bite my nails. That’s what Helmut told me, anyway. He said I do it like Prost. So it’s not because I look like him. I don’t know if I have the same voice, or the same face. No idea. But I think it comes from doing this,” he said, before showing what he meant.

“But I’m really happy with the nickname, because it’s Prost. A legend,” Hadjar added with a smile. “I just hope it’s not a bad thing for him, to be associated with my name! I hope he’s not mad!”