Following a difficult year and a half at RB (formerly AlphaTauri), Daniel Ricciardo lost his place on the team with four races to go in 2024. In came Liam Lawson, who ended up making the jump to the main Red Bull team for 2025. This paved the way for Isack Hadjar to get into F1.
The question now is whether Lawson and Hadjar can retain their seats in the long term. After all, Red Bull and its sister team are known for being ruthless with underperforming drivers.
Hadjar, in particular, will be under intense scrutiny from Chief Advisor Helmut Marko, as he remains a raw talent within Red Bull’s young driver program. Despite finishing second in last year’s F2 championship, his temperament has been labeled “impulsive,” something that will need to be closely monitored.
Nevertheless, the French-Algerian driver knows what he needs to do to fulfill RB’s expectations.
Hadjar needs to keep it simple. His primary goal is to secure a seat with Red Bull for 2026, but first, he must ensure he retains his spot throughout 2025. When asked how he plans to avoid an early exit, Hadjar told TalkSport at F1 75 in London, “Easy, easy answer — just extract the most out of the car, and that’s it.”
Hadjar’s performances in 2025 will also be crucial to improving his perception among the F1 community. Many believe that he only got to RB because of Red Bull’s keenness on promoting Lawson to the Milton Keynes-based squad.
If it ain’t broke… don’t SIX it @Isack_Hadjar will be taking his driver number from his karting days into F1.#F1 #VCARB pic.twitter.com/wMjxXOEQXw
— Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team (@visacashapprb) December 23, 2024
In reality, Marko is expecting the 20-year-old to flourish at the Faenza-based team alongside Yuki Tsunoda, a driver who was also in contention for the Red Bull seat.
Marko feels that Hadjar’s impulsive nature could have a positive effect on his performance. “Isack (Hadjar) is a very fast driver but also very impulsive, which could make the duel with Yuki within the team interesting,” the Austrian said.
Hadjar is keen on learning from Tsunoda
After a challenging start to life in F1, Tsunoda has firmly established himself as RB’s undisputed number-one driver over the past two years. Though repeatedly overlooked for a Red Bull seat, he managed to hold on to his place in Faenza while his former teammates, Nyck de Vries and Ricciardo, were shown the door.
Naturally, Hadjar is also at risk of losing his spot.
If he fails to match Tsunoda’s level, Marko and Red Bull will most likely start considering alternatives in 2025 itself. However, he isn’t feeling that pressure just yet. And when the time comes, he has a plan — learning from his Japanese teammate. “I need to see his data. I need the first few races to learn from him as well,” Hadjar said.
This won’t be an easy job, and even though he managed to match Tsunoda during pre-season testing last weekend, replicating the same in actual Grand Prix races is a different ball game altogether.
