For Isack Hadjar racing is a ‘family project’

One of F1’s newest drivers knows exactly what it took to reach the starting grid

When Formula 1 returns to action this week, with three days of pre-season testing at Bahrain International Circuit, six drivers will begin their first full seasons on the grid.

For one of those drivers, reaching F1 is the culmination of a “family project.”

Isack Hadjar, who finished second in the F2 Drivers’ Championship a year ago, earned a promotion to the F1 grid for the 2025 campaign. Hadjar was given a spot at Visa Cash App Racing Bulls and will drive alongside Yuki Tsunoda as a rookie.

As Hadjar outlined in the team’s season preview, this would not have been possible without his parents.

“From the very start it was my father who took me to the tracks and did the mechanical work on my karts, so we did a lot of kilometers together, a father-son duo travelling all round Europe together,” said Hadjar. “On the other side, my mother dealt with the difficult task of finding sponsors, looking after the budget and, in fact today she is my manager. She fought very hard to find the funding for me to race in good championships. It’s huge what she did to get me here. It really is a family project.”

Hadjar worked his way through the single-seater ranks, starting in French F4 back in 2019 before climbing to F2 for the 2023 campaign. Hadjar finished 14th in the F2 Drivers’ Championship in his first season, before rocketing to the top of the standings a year ago. Hadjar arrived in Abu Dhabi for the final race weekend of the F2 campaign last season sitting second in the standings, just one-half point behind Gabriel Bortoleto.

But after finishing fifth in the F2 Sprint Race, a stall from Hadjar at the start of the feature race dashed his Championship dreams. He called that result “[t]he worst moment of my life, right now.”

Earning a spot on the F1 grid, however, is a solid consolation prize.

Still, Hadjar admits he has a lot to learn in his rookie season.

“Naturally, I lack experience in all areas of Formula One, so I am not expecting it to be easy in general. For example, I’ve never raced for one and a half hours, the strategy is at a much more complex level, as is tyre management and, on top of that, there are some of the circuits that I have not raced on before and will experience for the first time in free practice,” said Hadjar. “Plus, the whole weekend format is different, such as having three practice sessions prior to Qualifying. As a rookie there’s a lot to learn.”

Thankfully, Hadjar will have veteran Yuki Tsunoda to lean on. The two have worked together briefly before, and the incoming rookie hopes to learn from his teammate how to approach F1 both on, and off, the track.

“I think I can learn from him everything that a rookie driver doesn’t know! It will be useful to be able to see his data and to understand how he approaches the race weekends,” said Hadjar. “There will be aspects I can also learn from him on the driving side, especially how he tackles a long run or a Qualifying lap. I know how to drive quickly and what I have to do, but his experience of the whole race weekend is something I can learn from. I’m glad he remembers our first meeting at Suzuka! It was about five and a half years ago and he was racing in the FIA F3 Championship at the time and I was in my first season of F4, I was 14 years old.”

Hadjar’s main goal for 2025? Mastering the VCARB 02. While the F1 schedule will take him to some new circuits, the young driver believes if he can master his machinery, knowledge of the circuits will follow.

“What I’ve learned so far in my career is that once you have a good understanding of your car and how it’s handling, then knowledge of the circuit is the secondary factor and adapting to it should happen very quickly once you’ve mastered the car,” said Hadjar. “So, for me I’m not worried about that aspect of my season.”

That process begins this week in Bahrain.