Formula 1 rookie Isack Hadjar says he is rarely as angry as the furious radio outbursts last year make him seem.
The Racing Bulls driver vented his frustration on several occasions last year during an often frustrating Formula 2 campaign. He finished the year second in the championship but was often dogged by misfortune.Several of Hadjar’s irate radio messages were broadcast during the races, but he says he is much calmer than they make him appear.
“Certain drivers say ‘when I put the visor down, I’m a different person, different animal’,” Hadjar told the official F1 channel. “Honestly, I feel really composed when I drive.
“I think a lot. I’m aware of the danger. I wouldn’t say I am different to the guy on the outside.
“Maybe I am less aggressive than what people think. But obviously the radio button makes me look like a really angry guy.”
“I know I’m passionate, that’s for sure, and angry at times,” he added.
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Hadjar said he was relieved to get a second season in F2 last year after finishing 14th in his rookie campaign the year before.
“They put me at Campos, they decided it, but then when I looked at the season and previous years, I really saw potential in the team. [I thought] with a stronger driver, they could maybe deliver some really good races.”
His season got off to a difficult start. Hadjar was taken out by Gabriel Bortoleto in the first feature race of the year then suffered technical problems in both races at the next round.
“It started really wrong,” he said. “I had all the pace in the world, right, but I couldn’t get the results.”
However he rebounded soon afterwards, winning both races in Australia on the road, but losing one due to a contentious penalty. “I thought F1 was pretty much over, even though there was like a lot of rounds left, you don’t turn around and things like this,” he said. “But actually we did from Melbourne and we had mega momentum.”
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One of Hadjar’s angriest outbursts occured in Monaco, where he was on course to score his third consecutive feature race win, but lost the lead when rival Zak O’Sullivan was able to save time by pitting during a late Virtual Safety Car period.
“It was a very tough day in the office,” he said. “You jump out of the car after a tough session, you’ve got [Red Bull motorsport consultant] Helmut Marko waiting for explanations and everything, because sometimes you didn’t do [anything] wrong but it’s really a tricky situation. Plus the fact that you’re disappointed yourself.
“Unfortunately, it’s not really an individual sport, there’s much more involved so it takes a lot to mentally be ready.”
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MacLeod (@macleod)
7th February 2025, 7:41
So a Yuki 2 …… Lets hope he is getting Media tranning.
FrankT
7th February 2025, 8:00
Let’s hope he doesn’t. I want real characters with real emotions, I don’t want boring people with mediatrained answers and behavior. If you get upset with certain emotions or people? Turn of the sound. I can think of a certain 7 time WC, that after all these years, I still don’t know who he really is or what he really thinks, outside the carefully crafted media personality.
michaelO
7th February 2025, 8:06
Yes, we want more Yuki’s!
Laz
7th February 2025, 11:48
Apparently Red Bull don’t. So he better find a way to calm himself or he’ll be overlooked like Tsunoda was.
HAL
7th February 2025, 14:20
+1
I don’t really see what the issue is with sounding animated on the radio if the driving remains fair, which is the case with Hadjar. Between the no swearing, no animated comment, no emotion, better stop broadcasting radio messages altogether.
Besides, everyone’s different, some driver remain calm but ask petty question to throw the team under the bus – no great either imho.
In that sense, I admire Oscar who remains calm but can make very his feelings clear using sarcasm.
FrankT
7th February 2025, 19:45
Good example with Piastri. The guy can come across as boring (to some) because he has calm. But I get to see his personality, with his sarcasm and his wit.
T
7th February 2025, 16:16
then you haven’t been paying attention or you’re being very disingenuous
pick one
he has a dog named roscoe, that dog often makes an appearance at silverstone <- his favorite track with the pit straight named after him
he's vegan
his dog is also vegan
he has a massive back tattoo, like massive
he just got an honorary brazilian citizenship
he's been recently knighted
he's very very very vocal about representation and has made active and concrete steps to realize that goal
I know all these things and I don't have any social media accounts nor do i go out of my way to actively seek out Lewis Hamilton content. he's been in the sport for over a decade and a half, stop lying or open your eyes and ears frank
the strawman you're looking for is Logan Sargent, all he had going for him was "American", even Zhou told you he was huge fan of Kobe Bryant with his helmet designs and driver number
this is all on top of the fact people clamor for personalities then as soon as they get it, they despise it.
George Russell has been vacillating between being a Mercedes PR robot and whiny spoiled entitled brat for a very long time now and the verdict is still out but distinctively negative
you guys want a heel to hate but hate the fact that the heel exists and it's never made any sense to me
if Isaac turns out to the kind of person who yells at his engineers and isn't quick to accept to blame in front of the camera, you all will be the first to condemn him for it. There won't be a lot of you calling for more emotion and celebrating it
I know this because we did this with Yuki, it wasn't a personality or real emotions, it was a flaw and to some extent, a justification for Red Bull to overlook him
FrankT
7th February 2025, 19:37
I’m talking about his personality, not some random facts about him. I know the haircolour of my neighbor seven doors down, plus what kind of dog he has, but that doesn’t mean I know anything about the man.
When Hamilton says at every track he goes, that it is the best crowd he has ever seen, I still don’t know when he actually speaks the truth. But I guess I hit a nerve, because that was a whole lot of text.
T
7th February 2025, 21:04
trying to hide behind the “whole of text” jab just informs me your attention span is shot and or you barely read before replying.
also, yea you hit a nerve, I thought you were being disingenuous
and I think you’re doing it again but this time with the flair of classic semantics
you know how Hamilton feels about under representation
you exactly what he has done and is still doing about it
you know exactly how he feels about silverstone, it’s the only track he actively celebrates all his wins at
you know exactly how Britain largely feels about him, they just codified his name into silverstone and he’s a knight now
you know the tattoos etched into his subderma broadcast his religious/spiritual beliefs, how important family and loyalty is to him, and the underdog mentality he channels during what he deems to be hard times.
pretending you can’t tell his crowd work on the mic from say his thoughts and opinions on LGBTQIA+ inequities in Qatar is wait for it….. disingenuous
get out of here with this nonsense, personality is a smorgasbord of characteristics and qualities that make up an individual. we infer personality from the litany of facts orbiting people and the actions they undertake.
you can draw a direct line from the fact that hamilton has an honorary brazilian citizenship to his love of Senna to how he portrays that in his actions from him literally calling Senna his hero, to honoring Senna and sometimes Brazil in the color palette of his helmets to relishing the opportunity to drive Senna’s title-winning McLaren around Interlagos to how Brazilllians themselves interact with and revere Hamilton.
pretending and singling out hamilton to say you still don’t know who he really is or what he really thinks is disingenuous
i don’t even know why you specifically or I need to know “when he actually speaks the truth”
if this is all a facade then what? more importantly, what makes the other drivers’ “personalities” any more real? they say curse words? they play video games? you could have a pint with them? is that it? is that your litmus test?
it’s 2025 and i’m tired of people pretending they don’t know what nuance is when it suits them
be better and good night
Konstantinos
7th February 2025, 22:21
It’s interesting with heels, the driver that makes me think of your point usually is Stroll. Sure, I get why people don’t want him there, he doesn’t deserve it blah blah blah, but he has such a unique backstory with his father and everything, it’s just so much more fun to have him around. Russell too, his radio messages sound like he’s emulating the tone of a fast and the furious style one-liner in a desperate attempt to be cool, it’s just terrible. But it’s fun to root against him so I like having him around. Just give me 1-2 good ones the rest can be heels in my
mind. Ok maybe not.
T
7th February 2025, 22:34
i unironically say
whenever something doesn’t go by plan or my way
Russell is hilarious to listen to sometimes, i’ve never heard a driver exclaim Yaba Daba Doooooo! after a race win until now
MacLeod (@macleod)
10th February 2025, 8:35
His dog is Vegan what is that for nonsense a dog is an carnivore. A dog can eat some veggies (so 15% but must be compensated with meat or getting problems with his stomach.) and for those saying you can train a dog.. I saw enough videos if a dog gets to choice between veggi and meat he goes for the meat…
osnola
11th February 2025, 19:37
Its the kind of storyline his fans like.. so it must be true….
El Pollo Loco
8th February 2025, 2:43
Except Yuki is an interesting, entertaining character. Hadjar is just a mean spirited, entitled [rhymes with got + starts with a t].
Moi
8th February 2025, 11:53
Exactly, less Russel and Hamiltons, more Max
Dex
7th February 2025, 9:48
Indeed, let’s not. I don’t like this kid, but him being a robot won’t make me like him more. I despise this modern PR culture. All we need is more boring robots like a generic Piastri, Leclerc or almost any other random F1 driver, who are banned from having any human character in public since before their high-school days. Let’s hope this part of our modern culture ends soon. Who’d you rather listen to on the team radio, someone like i.e. Lauda, Senna, Hunt or Mansell, or a driver who needs to think thrice before opening his mouth (and then sounds like AI)?
anon
7th February 2025, 10:46
People say that, but sometimes then really rip apart drivers who might exhibit a character that they take a dislike to, or sometimes look to attack drivers because they are rivals to whom they support and distort what a driver may say to create a more negative picture.
In a world where that sort of thing happens, especially with elements of social media encouraging such behaviour, I suspect that several drivers have adopted the more cautious approach in the media at least partially as a defensive mechanism.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
7th February 2025, 15:35
None of those 4 worked in an era of radio messages being broadcast so dont kid yourself they werent winey babies on the radio that for someone like yourself you’d despise also probably. I cant say it bothers me that much, the PR guff is boring but dont listen. The radio stuff is a constant dialogue and they just broadcast bits to paint a particular picture. Dont sweat it.
El Pollo Loco
8th February 2025, 2:45
Dex is also a fan of the Russian invasion. So, I’d take his ethical judgements.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
7th February 2025, 8:05
Wow – did he read what I wrote about him yesterday or something? – LOL
He really didn’t come across well when I heard him last year but he might simply have been overexcited at getting a go in an F1 car.
Benefit of the doubt for now so show us what you got young man ;)
El Pollo Loco
8th February 2025, 3:18
He’s awful, but RF is also putting their thumbs on the scale by selecting a photo of him that makes Hadjar look like an unhinged psychotic. AKA weighting the deck.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
7th February 2025, 10:03
Probably no one is. But in the heat of the battle, some angry comments are understandable.
SteveP
7th February 2025, 10:39
Hmmm? The radio button does that?
Really?
There was I thinking that it might be the guy pressing the radio button, and maybe if he was as composed as he says he is, then he wouldn’t press the button.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
7th February 2025, 14:06
People (some people) speak differently when they are physically being pushed. Ever ridden a bike and had to ask a car driver not to cycle 3 mm from your rear wheel when they cant get past you? Even if you manage to stay calm you wont sound it. Or played football and had to ask/tell someone to do something differently? Its not the WI, its F1. Non piranhas need not apply
SteveP
7th February 2025, 16:09
Ridden a push-bike and had the right-hand (outside) pedal broken by the bleeper pulling the trailer wheel through it as he passed.
On push-bike, overtaken by someone who immediately turned left – that was a slide up the back of the VW Beetle along the roof and off the right-hand front.
Shall I continue?
Witnesses swore more than I did in any of the incidents I recall. Possibly because I was busy counting and checking the operational status of my limbs
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
8th February 2025, 9:39
Hardly my point. I live and cycle in London and id say i have about 3-4 possible incidents every time i ride. Just saying Hadjar’s head is coursing with adrenalin, he may be our of breath and he might not naturally be a Piastri type so when he talks it may sound personal. Its all context
SteveP
9th February 2025, 8:55
My point is that, irrespective of him whispering sweet nothings, or swearing like a trooper, he’s already identified the action that causes the problem – he’s pressed the button.
HAL
7th February 2025, 14:23
Right… He did not use the proper term – he is not an english native speaker afterall. I think his point was clear.
Alesici
7th February 2025, 10:54
So, according to the FIA:
Marek Nawarecki, FIA Senior Circuit Sport Director, has appointed:
Marek Hanaczewski as the new Formula E Race Director.
Considering FIA’s opaqueness, I wonder whether Marek Nawarecki and Marek Hanaczewski are one and the same person – perhaps they are just constantly switching between their apparent 2 positions hundreds of times per second? You almost couldn’t detect this, but if we look carefully, perhaps this illusion might make them both slightly transparent. Let’s hope this marks a new era for the FIA’s endeavours to become more transparent.
Ideals (@ideals)
7th February 2025, 12:59
Yes, me and the three other Rick’s in my class were also actually the same person all along. That is definitely how first names work.
Jonathan Parkin
7th February 2025, 15:39
In my year at high school there were two girls who had the same name (forename AND surname)
El Pollo Loco
8th February 2025, 3:24
In my family everyone has the same name regardless of gender. This includes cousins, uncles, aunts, etc. for 5 generations. It’s probably the same guy though. I think Johnny Herbert and Derrick Warwick are secretly the same guy too. At least one of them always seems be around for controversial, over-the-top penalties.
Esmiz (@esmiz)
7th February 2025, 14:22
This is the only sport where you can hear the protagonists in moments of heat. Considering that in occasions I have shouted death threats to lifelong friends while playing football in small town leagues due to the excitement of the moment, Hadjar’s words make a lot of sense to me.
SteveP
7th February 2025, 19:12
The words aren’t the real issue here, just pause and consider:
If you think the words, no one else knows.
If you say them and don’t press the radio button, no one else knows.
Unless the teams all run an open mike for some reason and this “radio button” thing is a myth.
El Pollo Loco
8th February 2025, 3:25
Yeah, whenever I hear screaming and trying to screw over teammates, I always thought “this makes a lot of sense to me.
Jonathan Parkin
7th February 2025, 15:57
IMHO the main reason Hadjar has this reputation is probably because of Helmut Marko.
I get it, motor racing is hard and there is a lot of pressure to perform. But I do get the feeling there is perhaps TOO much pressure. And this is causing sweary drivers over the radio
Heck, I would be just like that if I had to explain to HM why I was third and not first for instance in a race. I’m normally quite calm, but when I get panicked or stressed, I’m not a nice person at all
There is all these drivers coming up through Red Bull and they all having to cope with such high standards, it’s hardly surprising some of them are so angry
El Pollo Loco
8th February 2025, 3:26
Nothing like some good old external accountability.
El Pollo Loco
8th February 2025, 3:17
I really, really dislike this guy, but in his defense, it’s funny how RF has used this same photo three times for articles which makes him look extra psychotic.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
8th February 2025, 9:42
You dont know him but like a lot of people who stare at the TV you think you do. Its the tv sport watchers fallacy. ‘i saw a clip or a photo or a quote, therfore i know the man.’ You dont know him anymore than any other stranger but you think you do
El Pollo Loco
9th February 2025, 0:28
So deep. I’m assuming you don’t dislike anyone you haven’t met in person then? And I don’t claim to know him. I claim to really dislike what I do know of him. I’ve rarely seen one so adept at being obnoxious nearly every time they utter something aloud or post it online. So, forgive me for not assuming he’s actually a salt of the earth guy. We can’t all gaze insightfully rather than “stare” at the screen like you do.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
8th February 2025, 17:29
I have my concerns about Hadjar, RBR allow their drivers to operate in a different way to many other teams. However this comes at a cost. You must perform right out of the box – the pressure is probably the highest of all rookies, even a Kimi stepping into a race winning Mercedes.