In Hadjar’s first day of school

“Impressive; fast and no mistakes.” Praise is not much better from Helmut Marko if we ask him to evaluate Isack Hadjar’s first day of school when he celebrated his full Grand Prix debut for racing bulls in Australia.

Hadjar was the last debutant confirmed for a seat of 2025 F1, and the Frenchman of the Algerian descent has certainly not arrived in the series with the extent of the expectations of Andrea Kimi Antonelli or the promising camera by Oliver Bearman.

Hadjar had only 400 laps in an F1 car under his belt when he arrived in Albert Park, but far from being a rabbit in the headlights, the 20-year-old F2-second place placed the building blocks instead of a solid weekend. And while the real test will follow when the stopwatch is really important on Saturday and Sunday, Hadjar has started to start a promising start.

On Thursday, he got a first impression of his newly discovered status as a F1 driver when he went through the famous Melbourne Walk, a corridor that was lined with hordes of passionate fans, waiting for hours to get autographs and selfies. Hadjar was interested in no fans to disappoint, and took over 20 minutes to reach the short distance. He just arrived in time for his first meeting in the paddock.

Isack Hadjar, RB F1 team

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

In his subsequent media meeting, Hadjar made a relaxed impression, although he was a reluctant respondent and opened questions about his 10-year task as judoka. But although it was not an enthusiastic public speaker, no man felt this who felt the pressure.

“I feel the pressure that I put on myself, but the external pressure will always be a little lower,” said Hadjar. “The pressure you have to reach F1 is more difficult, because now I am only judged by my performance in the team in F1. In Formula 2, Formula 3, there are too many aspects that you cannot control.”

Nevertheless, the PR team from Hadjar tried to ensure that after the activity of the media day, his first day of running is optimized on the track so that enough space would be breathing and concentrating on what is important without too many distractions.

“We really try to isolate it from all the noise outside,” team leader Laurent Mekies told Sky Sports F1. “It is important that he gets rounds, feels comfortable in the car that he takes things step by step. It’s a long weekend, it’s a long season. So let’s really try to make sure that it feels comfortable by car.”

After a breakfast in the early Friday, Hadjar came to teammate Yuki Tsunoda in the F1 fan forum for a planned fan interaction, but until 11:00 a.m. his focus was on the journey and took part in a final technical meeting because he had entered the car for FP1.

Although Albert Park was a difficult route for a debutant, RB decided to follow his normal running plan without making any changes to gently involve Hadjar. While other newcomers took longer for the Haas colleague Bearman to storm from the first free training, Hadjar seemed comfortable enough in the VCARB 02 to climb at speed and finish 25 drama-free rounds to end ninth place.

This trend continued in FP2, in which he demanded the sixth, two and a half tenths behind Tsunoda in fourth place, albeit with RB cars, which appeared slightly on fuel and is expected to repel the pace of the Williams cars in midfield and probably fall back behind it.

Motorsport.com understands that the members of the engineering team were impressed by the exact feedback and the mature focus, and his solid start as a F1 driver was also not unnoticed in the Red Bull family, as Marko’s comments show above.

Mekies was also satisfied with what he had seen – from both drivers – although nobody from RB is yet being torn away by the Timsschen.

“It was a good day, especially when Isack was a newcomer, with all the pressure, a city route, rain for Sunday … there is a lot to do,” he said. “He only had one day with Christian’s team (Horner) before he came to Bahrain.

“He is still very much in an early phase, but he did a good job. Yuki is pretty comfortable today and gave us a good baseline. But don’t read too much in lap times.”

Of course, his efforts on Friday are useful when Hadjar brings it into the wall in the first quarter on Saturday. But the 2025 rookie, which was least talked about -and is associated with a spirited reputation -has applied quietly with the job and obtained the best start.

Photos of Australian GP – free practice