Isack Hadjar has completed the 2025 Formula 1 grid after joining the RB team. Hadjar will partner Yuki Tsunoda, who was overlooked for the Red Bull seat alongside Max Verstappen.
Hadjar joined the Red Bull junior team in 2022, the same year he finished fourth in the Formula 3 championship. He then graduated to F2, placing 14th in his first season.
With the notoriously ruthless Helmut Marko watching closely, the Frenchman was under pressure to improve in his second year. But he rose to the challenge, winning four races and taking eight podiums to finish runner-up in the championship.
Hadjar was in contention until the final event in Abu Dhabi. But he stalled on the starting grid, denying him a chance to overhaul Gabriel Bortoleto.
In the end, he still achieved his ultimate goal by breaking into F1. He’ll have a chance to exact revenge on Bortoleto, who’s joining Sauber.
His ascension means a quarter of the 2025 field will be rookies. He joins F2 competitors Bortoleto, Oliver Bearman and Kimi Antonelli, as well as earlier graduate Jack Doohan.
Isack Hadjar called Lewis Hamilton the F1 GOAT over Max Verstappen
Hadjar will predictably be one of the youngest drivers on the grid at 20. Fernando Alonso, one of his likely opponents in the midfield, made his F1 debut three years before he was born.
And he was only three when Lewis Hamilton broke into F1 with McLaren. The Englishman would win his first championship in 2008, but his era of dominance wouldn’t start until 2014 when he joined Mercedes.
Hadjar spent his adolescent years watching the Briton’s arguable peak as he won six titles in seven seasons. Speaking on the Track Limits Podcast at the end of 2022, he named Hamilton as his biggest inspiration.
“I think the answer is quite easy – Lewis Hamilton,” he said. “Lewis Hamilton’s career is just another level. The numbers are just insane. He’s the GOAT for me. He’s my favourite driver. He inspired me so much.”
This answer may not sit well with the big names in the Red Bull family, including Max Verstappen. Verstappen was only a two-time world champion at that point but he’d already prevailed in a fiercely-contested 2021 battle with Hamilton.
Why Isack Hadjar’s radio messages at RB will shock Formula 1 fans
Tsunoda will set a strong benchmark for Hadjar in his first F1 season. The Japanese driver is entering his fifth season in the sport and reached another level last year.
While he couldn’t match Pierre Gasly at first, he’s since beaten Daniel Ricciardo and Nyck de Vries comfortably and also had the upper hand over Liam Lawson. Hadjar knows his long-term Red Bull prospects will hinge on the comparison.
One similarity between the two drivers is their proclivity for angry radio messages. Tsunoda likened himself to a ‘Monsters Inc’ character in admitting he had to control his temper.
And one journalist says Hadjar will ‘blow the minds’ of F1 fans over the 2025 airwaves. He needs to be wary of the impression he makes on Marko, Christian Horner and the Red Bull shareholders.
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