Isack Hadjar put himself on the path to reach Formula 1 when he joined the Red Bull junior team in 2022. By the end of 2024 he had won a place at their junior F1 team, Racing Bulls.
Hadjar's route to F1
Born in Paris to a French-Algerian family in 2004, Hadjar developed a love of motor racing from a young age and got his first kart at the age of seven. He entered his first races in 2012 and by 2018 had reached international level.The following year he started six races in the French Formula 4 series to prepare himself for his first full campaign in 2020. He placed regularly in the top four, then scored his first three wins over the final six races to end the season third in the standings, albeit well behind the comfortable title-winner, Ayumu Iwasa.
Hadjar moved up to the rebranded Formula Regional European championship (previously known as the Formula Renault Eurocup) for 2021. He gained attention with a strong drive to victory in the fifth race of the year, Hadjar’s debut on the demanding Monaco street circuit, where he beat Zane Maloney by over seven seconds. Maloney narrowly pipped him to ‘best rookie’ honours at the end of the year, as Hadjar took his second win at Monza.
Hadjar moved up to Formula 2 the following year as part of a six-strong squad of Red Bull junior drivers. The others were Maloney, Iwasa, Dennis Hauger, Jak Crawford and Enzo Fittipaldi. The less experienced Hadjar finished behind all five, but Red Bull kept him on for another season. He also made his debut in an official F1 practice session at the end of the year with Red Bull’s second team, AlphaTauri.
The first races of 2024 did not go well for Hadjar. He took just four points from the opening double-header and none from the second. Then he rebounded, taking feature race wins at Melbourne and Imola. He won the sprint race at the former ‘on the road’ as well, only to be controversially penalised for a first-lap collision.
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Another feature race win at Silverstone put Hadjar on top of the standings, a position he reinforced by taking his fourth feature race victory at Spa. But, just like in F3, Hadjar wasn’t able to stay on top until the end.
He left Monza and Baku empty-handed, which opened the door for Gabriel Bortoleto to take the points lead. Hadjar went into the final race still with a chance to beat Bortoleto, but his hopes died when he stalled on the line at the start.
But good news came soon afterwards for Hadjar: Red Bull’s decision to promote Liam Lawson instead of Sergio Perez opened up an opportunity to for him to make his F1 debut at Racing Bulls.
More about Hadjar
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