Isack Hadjar’s Formula 1 debut ended in gruelling fashion after crashing before getting to start the race.
A wet Australian Grand Prix posed tricky conditions for even the most seasoned veterans on the grid, as six rookies made their full-time Formula 1 debuts.
Hadjar was an unfortunate victim of the slippery tarmac and hit the wall on the formation lap, before getting to line up on the grid.
After an impressive Saturday for Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, it was a devastating way for their weekend to end. They had high hopes for the race but were reduced to one car almost immediately.
Since then, Hadjar has had an ‘extraordinary’ impact at Racing Bulls and has been one of the biggest surprises of the season so far.
Helmut Marko called Hadjar’s crash ’embarrassing’ and was less than impressed with his performance, but he has given him every reason to be happy since then.
READ MORE: Unhappy Helmut Marko went to speak to Isack Hadjar after what he saw at the Bahrain Grand Prix
Laurent Mekies was impressed by Isack Hadjar’s ‘most important’ debut demonstration
With Red Bull’s current driver situation, they have already stripped Hadjar of his first teammate and replaced him with Liam Lawson.
Hadjar noticed a change in Lawson and has seen his new partner build more speed lately. The Frenchman is a rival to the Kiwi for the 2026 opening at Red Bull.
Current Racing Bulls boss Laurent Mekies has revealed what his words to Hadjar were after he crashed out on his debut in Melbourne, before any driver swaps occurred.
“People often ask us, ‘So what did you tell him after Sunday in Melbourne?’ I said, well we had very little to tell him, because what you really think of at the very moment, when the car is in the wall,” he said.
“Actually, the most important part of [the] weekend was what he had demonstrated already. The speed was there, the integration was there. He was already behaving as a Formula 1 driver not even a weekend into the job.”
READ MORE: Liam Lawson will be very worried by what Helmut Marko just said about Racing Bulls teammate Isack Hadjar
Why Isack Hadjar has been so impressive during the 2025 Formula 1 season
Although he only sits 14th in the drivers’ championship with five points, Hadjar has scored the most points of any of the three Red Bull-contracted drivers apart from Max Verstappen in 2025.
That’s despite being a rookie with considerably less experience than his rivals, and very little time to adapt to completely new machinery.
It means that ex-teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who received a promotion, only has the same number of points that he has managed, and he has nearly 100 Grands Prix worth of experience.
He’s putting a really strong hand forward currently, and the longer it continues, the more his name will creep into the conversation for a team swap ahead of the 2026 F1 regulations.
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