{"id":111507,"date":"2025-09-01T09:09:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T09:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/111507\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T09:09:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T09:09:00","slug":"who-slept-best-last-night-isack-hadjar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/111507\/","title":{"rendered":"Who slept best last night: Isack Hadjar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isack Hadjar<\/a> isn\u2019t your typical Formula 1 driver. He\u2019ll come to the media straight after a session \u2013 qualifying or race \u2013 when he hasn\u2019t really extracted the maximum, and there\u2019ll be no excuses. He\u2019d give very short answers. He\u2019ll look straight at whoever is asking a question and say something really harsh about himself \u2013 to the point where some of these short meetings with a handful of journalists end up with them trying to give him reasons to cheer up.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are the only driver not to have been knocked out in Q1 this year. It\u2019s not bad, is it? Something to smile about, at least,\u201d someone pointed out to him on Saturday in Hungary, minutes after he qualified 10th. \u201cYeah,\u201d Hadjar replied \u2013 and added nothing more. Even a reminder that reaching Q3 is still impressive for a rookie didn\u2019t lift him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m behind my team-mate,\u201d he said, and didn\u2019t feel the need to elaborate.<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s always been like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time I met him was actually in Zandvoort,\u201d recalled Jeremy Satis, a former French journalist who is now part of The Grid management agency, which Hadjar is signed with, as we chatted on Sunday night after Isack\u2019s first F1 podium. \u201cHe was in French F4 \u2014 and he hadn\u2019t done a good job in the race. I remember asking his coach if I could interview him because I wanted to do a feature on his story \u2014 and his coach said, \u2018Maybe just wait an hour, because he\u2019s mad at himself.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Isack was walking back and forth, shouting at himself: \u2018How can I race like this?\u2019 \u2018All the sacrifice my parents are making\u2026\u2019 He just kept shouting. And I can tell you \u2013 now that I\u2019m on the management side \u2013 90% of kids just say, \u2018It\u2019s the car,\u2019 \u2018It\u2019s the conditions,\u2019 and so on. But he put everything on himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Isack <\/p>\n

Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls<\/p>\n

Photo by: Mark Sutton \/ Formula 1 via Getty Images<\/p>\n

He was probably a bit fortunate to get that F1 seat this year \u2014 grabbing what looked like an outside chance thanks to Sergio Perez<\/a>\u2019s struggles at the end of last season. And it also didn\u2019t really feel like Red Bull was particularly keen to promote him.<\/p>\n

Impressions of him in his junior years varied \u2013 some saw him as too arrogant, others too na\u00efve \u2013 because he kept insisting in interviews that he\u2019d make it to F1 even when things weren\u2019t going well. He was fiery on the radio too, which gained traction on social media.<\/p>\n

And even when he finally got to F1, it sometimes felt like he was a bit out of place in the paddock. Dress him in something other than team kit, and he could pass for another kid asking drivers for selfies \u2013 a feeling only reinforced when you hear him talk about Lewis Hamilton<\/a>. And then there was Melbourne, of course.<\/p>\n

It all adds up to a striking contrast in his character: living his childhood dream doesn\u2019t make him feel like he\u2019s \u201cmade it\u201d \u2013 he keeps demanding more from himself.<\/p>\n

For him, not reaching F1 was never an option. That thought, people say, was instilled by the architect of his career \u2013 his mother, Randa, always by his side. Hadjar never really needed Helmut Marko to call him at 6am after a bad race \u2013 he would already be telling himself everything Marko would have said.<\/p>\n

With that unshakeable belief he\u2019d make it to F1, there was never really another option.<\/p>\n

\"Isack <\/p>\n

Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls, Yassine Hadjar with Randa Hadjar<\/p>\n

Photo by: Joe Portlock \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember driving with him when he was in Formula 3 with Hitech, when he wasn\u2019t even fighting for the title yet,\u201d Satis laughed. \u201cAnd he kept saying, \u2018When I will be in F1\u2026 when I will be in F1\u2026\u2019 So I asked, \u2018Do you say that because it sounds cool or what is it?\u2019 And he said, \u2018No, man, I have no choice. I will be in F1.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I saw him say it the same way in front of important people who were about to become sponsors. You know, all drivers say that. But most don\u2019t really believe it. With him, you could tell he was convinced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zandvoort probably settled the debate about who\u2019s been the most impressive rookie of 2025. Scoring a podium with Racing Bulls<\/a> isn\u2019t the same as doing it with Mercedes<\/a>. And in F1 \u2013 especially for rookies \u2013 standout performances matter first, consistency second.<\/p>\n

Hadjar\u2019s season hasn\u2019t been perfect. He had scored just a single point since Spain and let Liam Lawson<\/a> catch up in the standings by the summer break. He was quick, but didn\u2019t put everything together. Ask him, and he\u2019ll probably give you the full list of what he\u2019s done wrong. But that won\u2019t define his rookie year. The Zandvoort podium will. Because that\u2019s what shows potential.<\/p>\n

Any way you look at it, it was impressive: an \u201cout of nowhere\u201d lap in Q3 that put him P4 on the grid, holding off Ferraris and Mercedes in the opening laps, surviving three restarts, and keeping it together until the final lap \u2013 and spending almost the entire race just behind Max Verstappen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what Marko values. The Austrian doctor loves to sign drivers after striking performances, even one-offs \u2013 cynics will probably say he loves it just as much as sacking them. That\u2019s how it was with Hadjar himself, after his FRECA win in Monaco in 2021. Marko just called him at his hotel to inform him he\u2019d send a contract.<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls<\/p>\n

Photo by: Kym Illman \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

With Marko\u2019s eye for headline results, you can\u2019t help but think Hadjar\u2019s Zandvoort performance now puts him on pole position for the second Red Bull seat in the near future \u2013 especially with Yuki Tsunoda<\/a>\u2019s struggles continuing. To match that kind of performance will be very, very difficult for the Japanese.<\/p>\n

Whether that would be the best move for Hadjar himself remains to be seen \u2013 the seat alongside Verstappen is one of the hottest in F1, after all. But that\u2019s a question for another day\u2026<\/p>\n

Photos from Dutch GP – Race<\/p>\n

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\"Oscar<\/p>\n


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\"Oscar<\/p>\n


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Read Also:<\/p>\n

In this article<\/p>\n

Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics<\/p>\n

Subscribe to news alerts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Isack Hadjar isn\u2019t your typical Formula 1 driver. He\u2019ll come to the media straight after a session \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,48037,578,58782,576,577,3028,82,63012],"class_list":["post-111507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dutch-gp","tag-f1","tag-f1-dutch-grand-prix-2025","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-isack-hadjar","tag-sports","tag-who-slept-best-last-night-isack-hadjar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}