Formula 1 rookie Isack Hadjar has boldly claimed he has the ability to match Max Verstappen’s career achievements ahead of his F1 debut later this month. The new Racing Bulls recruit filled the vacancy left by Liam Lawson to partner Yuki Tsunoda for the 2025 season after impressing in the Formula 2 feeder series. At 20, Hadjar is already three years older than Verstappen was when he made his debut for the team a decade ago. Verstappen is also third on the all-time list for race victories with 63, while the Dutchman has finished on the podium 112 times in his 209 race entries.
Very few drivers have been able to demonstrate the same level of consistency and composure behind the wheel as Verstappen, who has won four titles in a row from 2021 to 2024. But the Frenchman is confident he can play catch-up and follow a similar career path to Verstappen at Red Bull. Asked by RacingNews365.com whether he believes he can match the achievements of the four-time champion, Hadjar replied: “Yes. I have confidence. That’s what I want to do. I don’t want to be an F1 driver just to be in F1. I’m not interested in just being here. I want to do well.”
Hadjar is one of five rookies moving up to motorsport’s pinnacle on a full-time basis this season. While Jack Doohan and Oliver Bearman raced in 2024, neither had locked down a permanent drive with Alpine and Haas respectively until the end of the season.
They will join some familiar faces on the grid as Hadjar, Mercedes starlet Kimi Antonelli and Gabriel Bortoleto – the F2 champion who joined Sauber – will also line up on the grid at the first race of the season in Australia on Sunday, March 16.
All five drivers made it through testing in Bahrain last week without any damaging crashes or reliability issues – and Hadjar declared himself satisfied with his 12 hours in the VCARB 02 car at the Sakhir International Circuit.
“I would say I got up to speed fairly quickly. Just able to push the limit of the car quite well. Got used to F1,” he added. “But now the more difficult bit is to extract the most out of it when it matters, and especially on short runs, I feel like there’s still some work to do. It’s hard to get the tyres in the right window as well.
“Then learned a lot on really long runs. Made a whole race distance, my first race distance, I have to say, it was really long, but yeah, learnt a lot.
“This morning [Friday], I think we had probably our best half a day. Learned a lot, tried many setups. And to be fair, I feel I’m as ready as possible for Melbourne.”
