Who is Racing Bulls’ new F1 driver Isack Hadjar?

Having been signed by Racing Bulls for the 2025 Formula 1 season, Isack Hadjar had very much been in and out of the conversation as speculation surrounding Sergio Perez’s Red Bull future mounted. With Liam Lawson always viewed as the most likely candidate to step up and replace the Mexican after he took Daniel Ricciardo’s RB ride midway through 2024, the opportunity for new blood presented itself.

In a twist few would have seen coming ahead of the campaign, Hadjar found himself battling primarily with Williams driver Franco Colapinto for the RB opportunity, after the Argentine stepped up in place of Logan Sargeant ahead of the Italian Grand Prix and put in a series of impressive performances.

Unable to influence Colapinto’s results from the F2 paddock, Hadjar was given added motivation to clinch the title in the direct feeder series to F1, but he missed out on this accolade to new Sauber driver Gabriel Bortoleto following a season-long tussle.

But with Campos, Hadjar was able to take more race wins than any other driver across the F2 campaign, with all four of his victories coming in the longer feature races. Had it not been for a virtual safety car at the worst possible moment in Monaco, he would have added a fifth success to his name.

Hadjar will race alongside Yuki Tsunoda at Racing Bulls in 2025, so has an experienced hand to learn from in terms of both understanding the team and getting to grips with F1 as a whole.

Who is Isack Hadjar?

Hadjar is a 20-year-old French-Algerian driver from Paris. He also becomes one of very few modern F1 drivers to reach the top tier without recording a single championship title – a statistic which does a disservice to his obvious talent behind the wheel.

When he competed in karts between 2014 and 2018, Hadjar’s most successful period came in 2016 when he finished second in the cadet class of both Coupe de France and Challenge Rotax Max France.

Making the step into cars at the end of 2018, Hadjar first raced in the Ginetta Junior Winter Championship with Elite Motorsport, but failed to score a point. Single-seaters followed in 2019 as he entered the French F4 Championship, with his first victory coming in only his seventh race – the first of three outings at Spa-Francorchamps. He would add a further two podiums to his name en route to seventh in the overall…