Hadjar serves humble pie at Zandvoort - but Red Bull must resist the urge to rush his development

Could I ask for some gravy to go with my humble pie, please?

When Isack Hadjar was announced as the heir to Liam Lawson's barely occupied Racing Bulls drive, I don't recall being particularly charitable about his chances in Formula 1. The rookies piece in Autosport's February edition of the magazine wasn't particularly overt - I was arguably more interested in cramming quantum physics puns into a 200-ish word entry - but being honest, there wasn't a palpable sense of excitement about the French rookie.

There's a few reasons why: firstly, Hadjar's tail-end form in F2 wasn't particularly stunning, although it wasn't quite the second-tier championship capitulation sustained by Stefano Coletti in 2013 - in which the series-leading Monegasque won at his home race, got a tattoo on his foot about it, and promptly scored points once more in the remaining seven rounds. That fresh ink, bearing the legend 'this foot won at Monaco', looked more hubristic by the day.

By comparison, Hadjar's form tailed off during the Hungary weekend, but still got a Spa feature win and a Qatar feature podium amid several failures to score points. Gabriel Bortoleto, by comparison, jolted into life and reeled off consistent points-scores that yielded the title.

The poor judgements didn't hinge solely on Hadjar's F2 season, but also on his smattering of practice sessions across 2023 and 2024. Across the 2023 appearances, his Mexico FP1 debut for AlphaTauri had been solid but relatively inconclusive, and he was outpaced by Red Bull simulator driver (and Formula E champion) Jake Dennis in his Abu Dhabi outing in the RB19.

The crux of the Hadjar scepticism had primarily lain, however, in his 2024 British GP FP1 session for Red Bull. It was a session that had been fraught; Hadjar appeared flustered by the occasion, hadn't been particularly quick, and he'd looked like a bit of a liability as he baulked a rapidly approaching Lando Norris on the racing line of Turn 2. By comparison, Franco Colapinto had been hurled into the Williams and was just 0.4s off Alex Albon on his first attempt.

But look where we are, just over a year later; Colapinto's career in F1 is stalling, and Hadjar is now perilously close to being touted for a promotion...

Hadjar didn't impress in last year's FP1 session for the British GP

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

This probably sounds massively self-congratulatory, but it doesn't hurt to explore your own individual biases about someone, or something, and revisit with new evidence. And to be honest, I firmly believed Hadjar would be middling at best, do a few seasons, and then drop out of the Red Bull programme to do successful things elsewhere - a la Jean-Eric Vergne, Sebastien Buemi, and the countless others who have briefly graced Helmut Marko's wheel of fortune before finding fame elsewhere. There's still time for that, of course, and one mustn't get carried away. But Hadjar absolutely has the talent to diverge from that path.

It's been clear throughout 2025 that Hadjar is an excellent qualifier. Regardless of how Australia concluded before it had even commenced, sticking any midfield F1 car 11th on the grid at the first time of asking is a sensational effort. Hadjar managed that, and then followed it up by outqualifying Tsunoda in China. Sixth in Monaco was sensational. Fourth at Zandvoort? We're running out of superlatives.

Hadjar set out his stall very early when it came to one-lap pace, but race pace was a bit of a mixed bag. Finishing eighth in Japan got him off the mark, although he was the only top-10 qualifier to lose a position across the stilted Suzuka affair. He then grabbed points in the opening trio of European rounds, all at familiar circuits (his sixth place in Monaco assisted gamely by new team-mate Lawson), but his form - and luck - after Barcelona had started to wane.

Although Hadjar has previously shown caution around the prospect of a Red Bull drive, he now says he's "ready for anything"

Every rookie faces difficult moments in their opening season; Antonelli, for instance, is very much going through those growing pains now. Bortoleto front-loaded his teething troubles at the start of the year, and Bearman has interspersed his between the more salubrious results. Hadjar initially tripped up at Montreal with his Q1 impedance of Carlos Sainz, which worsened due to graining and other tyre management woes. Lawson comprehensively outperformed Hadjar in Austria, although we won't dwell on the miserable Silverstone visibility that precipitated Hadjar's collision with Antonelli.

A sprint point at Spa stopped the rot slightly, although his pitstop timing in the grand prix rather killed off his chances of scoring more; Hadjar was ahead of Lawson until the first round of stops, but his extra lap on the intermediates cost a hatful of time, as did a powertrain issue that sapped at his top-end speed.

Zandvoort set the record straight on both counts; Hadjar was at his most impressive in qualifying to prise a second-row start out of George Russell's hands, and continued to impress in the race as he soaked up pressure from Charles Leclerc - then Russell again - throughout the 72-lap run-time. While under pressure at the restarts, he didn't let up; even knowing there was only two cars in front of him for the final restart, there were no tangible frayed nerves on show when keeping Russell at bay.

Here's the impressive bit: Hadjar's pace relative to Verstappen. By calculating their average laps after cutting out the safety car-enforced delays and pitstops, Verstappen ran to a 1m15.105s average, and Hadjar was running at 1m15.202s.

Hadjar absorbed pressure from Leclerc and Russell throughout the Dutch GP

Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images

Sure, there were tyre deltas involved; Verstappen ran with only softs and mediums, while Hadjar started on mediums and switched to hards ahead of a final soft-tyre blast. Regardless, the two were incredibly close on pace; Hadjar even had moments where he appeared poised to put the four-time champion under more scrutiny, but didn't quite have the pace to capitalise.

Although Hadjar collected his first podium through fortune, owing to Lando Norris' late retirement, it was nonetheless a deserved flourish to a perfect drive. It came at a good time, too; Lawson has been steady regenerating in the second seat as he builds the strength stripped of him in a bruising two races for Red Bull. Hadjar needed to put one over the Kiwi, who went into the summer with a pair of eighth-placed finishes.

While we should laud Hadjar for his podium breakthrough and his debut F1 season, let's not get carried away; Lawson offers a cautionary tale of letting drivers fly too close to the sun, too soon. "Isack is different," enthused Helmut Marko after Zandvoort, but the Austrian said similar things about Lawson.

It was expected that the Kiwi's bullish attitude would ensure he thrived next to the pressure of Being Max Verstappen's Team-Mate, but he instead found little confidence and lasted just two races before his hasty defenestration from the lead Red Bull team.