Isack Hadjar is on Red Bull's long waiting list of F1-ready talents
Red Bull
Isack Hadjar has made a striking start to his F1 career, having joined the grid with the Racing Bulls team, after finishing runner-up in the 2024 F2 championship.
The Red Bull Junior driver impressed in his second year of Formula 2 in 2024, as he won feature races in Melbourne, Imola, Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps and took the title down to the wire, finally missing out to Gabriel Bortoleto by 22.5 points.
Hadjar, 20, has largely continued that impressive form in 2025, despite being new to the Formula 1 grid. He started eleventh on the grid for his debut race at the Australian Grand Prix, and only just missed out on a top ten grid slot in qualifying. However, an error on the wet parade lap saw Hadjar spin off and out of the race before it had even begun. He stepped from the car, clearly in tears.
Hadjar was back on form for the second round in China, qualifying seventh ahead of team-mate Yuki Tsunoda. He was on course for a points finish before being called in for an extra pitstop by his team, which turned out to be the wrong strategic call.
Even so, his pace so far has attracted favourable comparisons to the struggling Liam Lawson at Red Bull.
Hadjar was favourite to get the spare seat at Red Bull’s junior team for 2025, having had several free practice outings for both Red Bull and RB — as it was named for the 2024 season — and completed post-season testing for the latter outfit at the end of the 2024 season in Abu Dhabi – outpacing Yuki Tsunoda‘s best time in identical machinery.
Both Red Bull team boss Christian Horner and advisor Helmut Marko spoke highly of Hadjar, with the former highlighting the promising rookie as ‘next in line’ for an F1 seat. That came sooner than expected, with RB driver Liam Lawson taking Sergio Perez‘s seat at Red Bull.
“We’re excited to have Isack with us next year, bringing a new and fresh dynamic to the team alongside Yuki in 2025,” said Laurent Mekies, Racing Bulls team principal. “His journey to Formula 1 has been nothing short of outstanding, he has shown remarkable growth, with a series of impressive results in the junior single-seater ranks. He has the talent and drive necessary to compete at the highest level, and we have every confidence that he will adapt quickly and make a significant impact.”
Hadjar described the announcement as a dream come true. “The journey from karting through the ranks in single-seaters, to now being in Formula 1 is the moment I’ve been working towards my whole life,” he said. ” I feel like I’m stepping into a whole new universe, driving a much faster car and racing with the best drivers in the world. It’ll be a huge learning curve, but I’m ready to work hard and do the best I can for the team.”
Here’s more on Hadjar’s career so far.
| Year | Series | Result |
| 2012-18 | Karting | N/A |
| 2018 | Ginetta Junior Winter Championship | NC (Only three races entered) |
| 2019 | French F4 Championship | 7th |
| 2020 | French F4 Championship | 3rd |
| F4 UAE Championship | 11th | |
| 2021 | F3 Asian Championship | 6th |
| Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine | 5th | |
| 2022 | FIA Formula 3 Championship | 4th |
| Formula Regional Asian Championship Certified by FIA | 3rd | |
| 2023 | FIA Formula 2 Championship | 14th |
| Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix, FIA F3 World Cup | 7th | |
| 2024 | FIA Formula 2 Championship | 2nd |
Like many on the current F1 grid, Hadjar began his career in karting – long recognised as the traditional starting point for aspiring racers.
“I was always interested in cars but not particularly the racing, because of the movie Cars,” the Frenchman told RedBull.com. “My grandparents and parents are mainly doctors or physicists so they have nothing to do with motor sport but my dad always watched F1, that’s it really.
“When I grew up I wanted to do go-karts as I started watching F1 at the age of 6 so my parents bought me one when I was 7! This love for racing just came by myself.”
Hadjar entered his first kart race in September 2012 and won, sparking a journey up through the motor sport rankings. He spent two years contending the French National Karting Championship and then made the leap to single-seaters in 2019.
Hadjar moved to French F4 championship and competed in his first race at Circuit de Nogaro in April 2019. There, he finished eighth on debut and soon followed that performance with two more top-six finishes at Pau.
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The Frenchman’s first race victory came at Spa-Francorchamps and another visit to the podium came again at the Circuit de Lédenon. It was a solid first campaign in cars for Hadjar, as he finished seventh in the drivers’ standings – spurring confidence for a run at the title the following year.
2020 saw Hadjar make another leap in ability as he became a regular sight at the front of the field, battling for race victories against future co-Red Bull junior Ayumu Iwasa.
In all but four of the 21 rounds, Hajdar finished no lower than sixth; finished third four times; finished second four times; and won three races at Paul Ricard.
“One of my favourite races was in French F4 in 2020, I started the race from 14th on the grid and made my way up to 2nd,” Hadjar later recalled. “It was at the Paul Ricard circuit, where it’s not so easy to overtake but went up to 4th after a few laps with crazy overtakes, took the fastest lap and overtook for second in the late stages of the race.”
The run of three Paul Ricard wins came too late, however, to challenge Iwasa’s lead in the championship: Hadjar finished third, behind second-placed Ren Sato. He also took part in eight rounds of the UAE F4 championship, where he finished no lower than seventh.
Hadjar leads the FRECA field at Monza, 2021
Red Bull
Hadjar made another move up the motor sport ladder in 2021, moving into a FRECA (Formula Regional European Championship) seat with R-aceGP.
Again, he proved instantly on the pace, finishing seventh on debut before quickly finding his feet and establishing himself as a force to be reckoned with.
In only his fourth race in Barcelona, Hadjar finished third. But at the very next round in Monaco, his racing life changed forever.
“I won in Monaco,” said Hadjar. “For the first time in the season, I dominated. I had a great start and started pulling away after 2 laps setting fastest laps almost every single lap to create a gap of 6 seconds just before the safety car. Had a great restart and pulled another gap of 7 seconds, I just had so much fun as I had the Monte-Carlo streets just for me for 30min!”
The stunning performance turned the head of Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, who immediately signed Hadjar to the Milton Keynes outfit’s prestigious young driver programme. Even with that added pressure, the Frenchman continued to impress, winning again at the season finale in Monza – a result that secured fifth in the drivers’ standings over Franco Colapinto.
2021 also saw Hadjar take part in nine rounds of the F3 Asian Championship, where he scored five podium finishes and finished sixth in the standings.
Hadjar suits up in 2021
Red Bull
In 2022, Hadjar moved up to the FIA Formula 3 Championship with HiTech Racing and made another great first impression: winning on debut in Bahrain sprint. Against a field which contained the likes of Oliver Bearman, Victor Martins, Zane Maloney, Arthur Leclerc, Jak Crawford, Zak O’Sullivan, Juan Manuel Correa and Caio Collet, Hadjar proved a near-constant threat to the top step of the podium and ultimately finished an impressive fourth in the drivers’ standings – just 16 points behind eventual winner Martins.
“2022 was by far my best racing season in my small career, I learnt so many things throughout the year,” Hadjar told RedBull.com.
“I didn’t expect to be fighting for the championship until the very last race, but the hard work we’ve put in got rewarded from the first races. Then after taking the championship lead, the second half of the season was not ideal with mistakes from our side (Spa and Monza) that cost us the championship…”
“But what I remember was that we were always rapid and on a pace side we were the most consistent.”
Hadjar also competed in the Formula Regional Asian Championship through 2022, and against stellar opposition – which included Arthur Leclerc, Pepe Martí, Gabriele Minì, Dino Beganovic and Paul Aron – he continued to impress: winning two races, securing three podiums and finishing third in the drivers’ standings.
Hadjar made the leap to F2 in 2023
Red Bull
Hadjar’s rapid ascension through the motor sport ranks continued in 2023, as Red Bull promoted him into Formula 2 — again with Hitech GP.
For the first time in his young career, the Frenchman seemed to struggle for consistency and he ultimately finished 14th in the drivers’ standings. But there were still standout performances along the way, including sixth-place finishes in Melbourne and Zandvoort, fifth-place finishes at Silverstone, the Hungaroring and Yas Marina and a podium finish at the Red Bull Ring.
Keen to push Hadjar’s natural ability to its limits, Red Bull gave him his first taste of Formula 1 in Mexico City, where the Frenchman drove FP1 for RB.
In 2024, Hadjar returned to F2 with a bang. He switched teams, moving to Campos Racing, and his trajectory continued on the sharp upward curve that had originally marked him out as a Red Bull talent of the future.
Hadjar a winner at Silverstone
Red Bull
He bagged his first F2 victory at the feature race in Melbourne, which was quickly followed by other race wins at Imola, Silverstone and Spa. Accompanying podium finishes in Monaco, Austria, Hungary and Qatar meant he was also in contention for the title, with just 0.5 points separating him and Gabriel Bortoleto heading into the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
But in a heartbreaking turn of poor fortune, Hadjar’s title chances died with his engine on the starting grid of the feature race.
“I remember after Jeddah when I had like five points on the board and Zane (Maloney) had probably 60 and I knew this season was my last shot for Formula 1,” said the Red Bull junior.
“I had this pressure of having to deliver and clearly, after Round 2 it was: ‘How am I even going to start being on the podium and scoring points when I literally had all of the pace in the world, but these failures and technical issues I had were not allowing me to unlock the podiums and momentum?’
“I always kept my head down and from Melbourne, I had a really strong run. Never give up, basically.”
Now that persistence has paid off for Hadjar.
