Rookie rising through the ranks: Stunning Japanese Grand Prix for Hadjar

Fast flowing corners, a figure of eight layout and a track deeply embedded in history. Formula 1 made its return to Suzuka, Japan, for the third round of the 2025 championship. The great variation of corners and massive elevation changes makes it a top 3 track for most drivers. The race itself was not the most eventful one, Verstappen took his first victory of the year from pole position ahead of the two faster McLaren cars. Apart from Verstappen’s surprise win, another Red Bull affiliated driver had a star performance across the weekend. Racing Bull’s rookie Isack Hadjar scored his first ever points on his favorite racetrack.

Isack Hadjar in Japan, retrieved from GPBlog.com.

Hadjar was promoted to Formula 1 after taking second place in last year’s Formula 2 championship, losing out to fellow F1 rookie Gabriel Bortoleto. He had been part of Red Bull’s junior program since 2022. The Frenchman had been rather unlucky in his first two Grands Prix, crashing on the formation lap before the race even started in Australia, and falling down the order due to poor strategy calls in China. That second race, however, was one where the 20-year-old showcased his speed as he qualified in eighth, best of the entire midfield pack. Ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, Red Bull switched Yuki Tsunoda with Liam Lawson, demoting the latter back to their sister team. Hadjar thus had a new teammate to deal with, one who was originally chosen on merit for a drive in last year’s driver championship winning car.

Hadjar’s Japanese Grand Prix

All luck eventually comes to an end, and so was the case for Isack’s bad luck in F1. The weekend in Japan started on Friday with practice sessions. The running there, especially in the second one, was extremely limited due to incidents and fires next to the track. This issue repeated itself on Saturday morning for the third practice session. Therefore, little data was collected by the teams on tire degradation on the longer stints. Qualifying came about, and Hadjar stunningly put his Racing Bulls car in seventh place ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari which is a faster car on paper. During this session, however, he repeatedly reported problems in the cockpit which distracted him from extracting the maximum performance. After the Grand Prix he looked back on his qualifying performance and mentioned: “It’s [the Racing Bulls] definitely fast, especially on one lap. I still feel like maybe in the long run we are not that good, so we need to dig deep to improve that, but honestly with the momentum we have we still want to fight for points.” His teammate, Lawson, did not match the Frenchman’s pace at all. Funnily enough, the New Zealander did manage to outqualify Yuki Tsunoda, they started thirteenth and fourteenth on Sunday.

Hadjar then, managed to hold off Hamilton in the opening phase of the race and settled into a rhythm on his medium tires. The inevitable pass came about on lap six, as Hadjar’s childhood 1 hero put his Ferrari in front of the Racing Bulls. Then, basically nothing happened. Passing is known to be nearly impossible if there is not a huge difference in pace around this track, even though it is so highly praised from a driver’s perspective in qualifying. The Parisian kept up his pace throughout the first stint, extending it all the way to lap 25 which put him into third place momentarily. After his stop, he had to overtake one car on track to minimize his time loss, Carlos Sainz had not yet been called into the pits by the Williams crew. This moment turned out quite tricky for the youngster, as the car wiggled at high speed before committing to the move around the outside into turn 1. Looking back at this hairy moment he reflected: “I’m still not used to race this close with those cars, and the dirty air is just massive. As I went to the left the car just wouldn’t turn.” From here on out it was a straightforward dash to the finish line, no one got in close proximity of Hadjar as he finished in eighth wrapping up his first points in Formula 1.

Isack Hadjar in Qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix, retrieved from motrcyclenews.com.

Hadjar expresses love for Suzuka

Appearing in front of the cameras of F1TV right after the race Hadjar emphasized how happy he is with this performance, especially because it came together in Suzuka. “It feels good, finally the first points,” the Racing Bulls driver said, continuing jokingly: “Honestly, I feel it’s the best place to score your first ones, it’s my favourite track. Definitely it was on purpose, Melbourne and Shanghai, to wait for this one. I was just waiting for Suzuka!”

What a recovery the young Frenchman has made since his Melbourne incident. He has established himself as one of the top performers in the dense Formula 1 midfield pack and it was only his third ever Grand Prix weekend. The future looks bright for Isack, what potential can he reach?