“It’s Really Strange”: Isack Hadjar on Competing Against His Favorite Driver Lewis Hamilton

Isack Hadjar really wanted to wave at Lewis Hamilton after FP1 in Mexico City last year. As an RB reserve, he had been given a rare chance to drive the car for a session and wasn’t sure when he’d share the grid with his hero again. His race engineer, sadly, urged him to pick up the pace and bring the car into the pits.

Fast forward four months and Hadjar finds himself as a full-time F1 driver for the Faenza-based squad. He can wave at Hamilton as many times as he wants. Even shake his hands, click a picture, or perhaps hug him. However, he still finds being around Hamilton a little surreal.

At just 20 years old, Hadjar was not even five when Hamilton won his first world championship in 2008. The French-Algerian driver grew up idolizing him, watching him dominate races and shatter records, as did some of the other rookies on the grid like Kimi Antonelli, Jack Doohan, and Oliver Bearman.

In a Sky Sports feature involving these four drivers ahead of the Australian GP, Hadjar summarized his rookie batch’s sentiments quite eloquently.

“It’s really strange. Like Alonso, Hamilton, they’re like, you grow up watching them, they’re part of your life. We all know him since we were kids. So, now to race with him shows that the longevity is quite crazy as well,” he said.

Interestingly, Hadjar mentioned Alonso. Despite still being at the top of his game in his 40s, Alonso had a fierce rivalry with Hamilton when Hadjar first started watching F1. So, there could have been a hint of bias against the Spaniard.

However, the RB driver appeared to be mature, just like he was during a rookie roundtable session in Bahrain, where Doohan admitted that he supported Nico Rosberg during his intense 2016 title fight against Hamilton.

Fearing backlash, Doohan immediately apologized. But Hadjar understood that the Alpine rookie was simply rooting for the underdog that season — who ultimately went on to dethrone Hamilton.

Hadjar’s forgettable F1 debut

Being a Hamilton super-fan, Hadjar would love nothing more than to replicate the Briton’s sensational rookie season 18 years ago when he missed the championship by just one point. While achieving that in an RB is impossible, Hadjar’s debut year could not have started on a worse note.

It wasn’t a pleasant outing for most rookies. Doohan and Gabriel Bortoleto crashed out mid-race, which was bad enough on its own. But Hadjar’s race ended before the lights even went out. On a wet track, the 20-year-old touched a white painted line with his front tire during the formation lap, spun, and damaged the rear of his car.

The damage was terminal, ending his Grand Prix before it even began.

As he climbed out, Hadjar stood by the side of the track, his helmet still on, visibly emotional. He shed tears, devastated that he couldn’t even start the race — especially after securing a solid P11 in qualifying.

While walking back to the paddock with his helmet on, Hamilton’s father Anthony caught up and consoled him. He understood how devastating it must have felt for the 20-year-old to make that mistake and crash out on his F1 debut. “There’s a lot of pressure, all the way up. I just wanted to give him a hug, I behaved like a father,” Anthony said.

However, not everyone sympathized with Hadjar.

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko — known for being cold and insensitive — deemed that Hadjar put on a ‘crying show’ after his crash and labeled it ’embarrassing’. Typical Marko.