Who is Isack Hadjar? The Red Bull F1 phenom promoted to the grid for 2025

Isack Hadjar

Who is Isack Hadjar? The Red Bull phenom promoted to F1 for 2025

The Red Bull driver has claimed the final seat on the 2025 F1 grid

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Friday 20 December 2024 16:47

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The 2025 Formula 1 grid has been completed after Visa Cash App RB announced in a statement that Isack Hadjar will drive for the team next season.

Born in Paris, France, the up-and-coming 20-year-old has signed a deal that will see him promoted from F2 to the pinnacle of motorsport, with his future uncertain beyond 2025 thanks to the ever-changing driver dynamic within the Red Bull family.

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The French-Algerian racer has now been confirmed as Liam Lawson's replacement at Red Bull's junior F1 team after Lawson himself took over from Sergio Perez at the main team.

Perez was finally dropped by Christian Horner's outfit following the conclusion of the 2024 season, where team-mate Max Verstappen once again took home the drivers' championship, yet Red Bull were unable to do the double and also take home the constructors' title, mainly due to Perez's frequently poor performances.

With the team finishing the constructors' championship in third, Horner and Marko decided a change was imperative to improve the team's chances next season, opting for 22-year-old Lawson to partner Verstappen over Yuki Tsunoda.

Isack Hadjar has been confirmed as VCARB's second F1 driver for 2025

Next year, Tsunoda will enter his fifth season with the junior team, a statistic that led some fans to question why the Japanese driver hadn't been chosen to replace Perez given his wealth of experience in F1.

The 24-year-old VCARB star will be partnered by Hadjar, with a tough test ahead given Tsunoda's past form at consistently beating his team-mates.

But who is the 2024 F2 championship runner-up and why do the team think he is the best option to partner Tsunoda for next season?

Early life and career

Hadjar was born in Paris on September 28, 2004, to Algerian parents who were physicians by trade but loved motorsport.

VCARB's newest F1 driver began his karting career at the age of seven after watching F1 as a child and immediately adopted a love of racing.

The 20-year-old competed in karting until 2018 and then progressed to the Ginetta Junior Winter Championship with Elite Motorsport, where he failed to secure a point.

In 2019 however, Hadjar stepped up to single-seater racing in the French F4 Championship, earning his first win after just seven races and finishing the season seventh overall.

In 2021, the young star won in Monaco for the first time whilst racing in FRECA (Formula Regional European Championship) developing healthy rivalries along the way when racing against familiar names such as Paul Aron and Franco Colapinto.

When did Hadjar join Red Bull?

Hadjar finished the 2021 season in FRECA in fifth place before moving on to F3 in 2022, the same year in which he signed to the Red Bull junior driver programme.

He finished his first and only season of F3 fourth in the standings before joining F2 with Hitech initially in 2023 before switching teams for Campos in 2024.

Hadjar has made it to F1 without winning a single championship along the way, despite coming close in F2 this season.

Isack Hadjar has been part of the Red Bull family since 2022

A title fight down to the wire was expected between Hadjar and former McLaren junior Gabriel Bortoleto, although Hadjar was sadly out of the race before it had properly begun thanks to a technical issue that caused him to stall on the start line.

The 20-year-old will now have the opportunity to continue his rivalry with Bortoleto as the Brazilian racer is another of the four drivers from this year's F2 grid to be promoted to F1, Bortoleto signing with Sauber, Hadjar now with VCARB, Kimi Antonelli replacing Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes and Oliver Bearman joining Haas after impressing during his many replacement driver stints in 2024.

Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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