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<\/p>\nIsack Hadjar is the latest F1 driver to be paired up with Max Verstappen at Red Bull, and the Frenchman is already held in high regard by his team boss, Laurent Mekies.<\/p>\n
After a debut campaign that stood out as one of the more memorable rookie seasons in recent memory, Isack Hadjar now finds himself as one of the most promising young talents on the grid.<\/p>\n
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The 21-year-old didn\u2019t waste time getting noticed. In what was an average midfield car, he still managed to impress right from the start. The highlight came at Zandvoort, where he took a spot on the podium, but there were plenty of other moments that showed his potential throughout the year.<\/p>\n
One aspect of his game that really caught people\u2019s attention was his speed over a single lap. He was often making it into Q3 during qualifying sessions and even managed to outperform experienced drivers like Lewis Hamilton more than once.<\/p>\n
Laurent Mekies praises Isack Hadjar\u2019s \u2018incredible raw speed\u2019<\/p>\n
Photo by Clive Rose \u2013 Formula 1\/Formula 1 via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Laurent Mekies appeared on the James Allen on F1 podcast and was asked how he plans to shield the 21-year-old from the inevitable scrutiny of being Max Verstappen\u2019s teammate.<\/p>\n
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The Red Bull team principal responded, \u201cFirstly, we are not hiding behind the fact that we need to do a better job with that second car, and that includes the second part of last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess we made some progress with Yuki [Tsunoda], but not at the level that we felt we should have reached. So we are aware that we need to do a better job there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no easy solution, so it\u2019s a complex equation that we approach as such. Now, I think Isack comes with incredible raw speed. We believe in raw speed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think the level at which he started last year\u2019s season, his starting speed, was outstanding. Outstanding at the level of the very, very best, but then we equally believe that the big guys, the champions not only do they have an incredible starting point but they progress.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s not only a progression in maturity or in dialogues with the engineers; they actually go faster. You turn up at race five or race ten and they start to do something with the car that they have not done before.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we saw that in Isack last year at Racing Bulls. We are convinced that potential is mega.\u201d<\/p>\n
Isack Hadjar has set the new standard for Racing Bulls rookies<\/p>\n
After an impressive rookie season, Hadjar has become the standard for all young drivers coming through the Red Bull development system on their way to a full-time seat with Racing Bulls.<\/p>\n
His replacement at the Faenza-based team, Arvid Lindblad, has already been told he\u2019s not expected to follow in Hadjar\u2019s footsteps \u2013 a judgement that might be a bit early given how little time he\u2019s had in F1.<\/p>\n
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Hadjar\u2019s podium finish last season was the first top-three result for a Racing Bulls driver since Pierre Gasly\u2019s third place at the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Isack Hadjar is the latest F1 driver to be paired up with Max Verstappen at Red Bull, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,3028,11753,1885,3015,1882,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-432498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-isack-hadjar","14":"tag-laurent-mekies","15":"tag-max-verstappen","16":"tag-racing-bulls","17":"tag-red-bull","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432498","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=432498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}