Isack Hadjar believes himself to be “very lucky” that at the age of just 21 he will get to see first-hand what he has described as “the highest level in the world” in being team-mate to Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n
Following what was a stellar rookie season with Racing Bulls last year, Hadjar was handed a promotion to Red Bull for this season, in which he will partner four-time F1 champion Verstappen as the replacement for the dropped Yuki Tsunoda.<\/p>\n
Speaking in a select media interview at the end of last season, which included RacingNews365, and just days after his promotion had been confirmed, it was clear Hadjar was still in a relative state of shock and coming to terms with the move.<\/p>\n
“It’s hard to realise,” he said, in assessing what it meant to him to be a Red Bull driver at such a young age. “It’s not just Red Bull, it’s just being a team-mate with Max.<\/p>\n
“I’m so grateful because I’m just 21 and I get to see what the highest level in the world is like at such a young age. So I’m very lucky.”<\/p>\n
There is one aspect of the Red Bull role that Hadjar is not looking forward to this year, and that is the increased media attention.<\/p>\n
The French-Algerian driver never looked comfortable at any stage when chatting with the media whilst with Racing Bulls, with the spotlight now about to become far harsher.<\/p>\n
As to whether he will feel comfortable with that, he replied: “It’s just annoying, if anything.”<\/p>\n
As to whether there was anything he could do to mitigate that discomfort, a typically dry Hadjar jokingly responded: “I have a plan to disappear. Wear a mask. I don’t know.”<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tHadjar set for ‘perfect’ promotion<\/p>\n
Hadjar conceded that he will miss the ‘fun’ environment at Racing Bulls, believing it will be “a lot more serious” with Red Bull.<\/p>\n
“VCARB is a family team,” he said. “But at the same time, I’m not here to have a laugh.<\/p>\n
“I have friends to have fun with when I go home, and when I’m on track, I’m here to work. So I don’t mind it.”<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old, though, was grateful for the year he spent with Racing Bulls, with whom he scored points in 10 races, including a high of third in the Dutch Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
“I couldn’t have wished for a better team to start my F1 career with,” he said.<\/p>\n
“They’re used to developing kids, basically. I owe it to Pierre [Gasly], with whom I spent most of the winter with, and I had my head like this [flopping it to one side] before going to Bahrain, but that’s where the job was done.<\/p>\n
“That’s also why I got used to it very quickly. I adapted to it very quickly.<\/p>\n
“And as a driver, off track, I’ve made huge steps.”<\/p>\n
As to whether he felt himself ready for Red Bull, he was unequivocal. “Of course,” he said. “Actually, I couldn’t be more ready for this. It’s perfect.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Isack Hadjar believes himself to be “very lucky” that at the age of just 21 he will get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-384844","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-daniel-ricciardo","11":"tag-f1-calendar","12":"tag-f1-live","13":"tag-f1-results","14":"tag-f1-standings","15":"tag-ferrari","16":"tag-formula-1","17":"tag-lewis-hamilton","18":"tag-max-verstappen","19":"tag-motor","20":"tag-motor-sports","21":"tag-motorsport","22":"tag-motosport","23":"tag-motosports","24":"tag-racing","25":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}