Hamilton, Sainz have bad F1 'habits' – Hadjar

Jun.5 (GMM) Just a third of a season into his Formula 1 career, Isack Hadjar seems destined for a future at Red Bull Racing.

Early this year, Liam Lawson was full of confidence after being promoted from the junior Racing Bulls team to serve as Max Verstappen’s new teammate.

His two-race fate at Red Bull is now well known, while brand-new Racing Bulls teammate Hadjar, 20, has more than five-times Lawson’s points tally.

Praise, however, rolls off his back.

“Whether I’m doing well, or badly, I don’t hear anything,” the Frenchman told El Mundo Deportivo newspaper.

“You can tell me I’ve done a good job, and I’ll say thank you and nothing else. None of your comments will make me go faster.”

It’s almost certain, however, that the praise from figures like Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner are music to his ears. “He’s the most impressive of all the rookies this year,” Horner told Canal Plus.

“So far, he’s exceeded all of our expectations.”

Dr Helmut Marko – a key driver decision-maker – is also impressed, especially as established race winners like Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton have struggled even to adjust to their new teams and cars in 2025.

“I adapted quickly,” Hadjar agrees.

“Yes, I expected it. That’s why I came to F1, actually. We’re F1 drivers. I think every rookie has adapted very quickly as well. It’s a good generation, I’d say.

“We learned a very high level in F3 and F2.”

But when asked specifically about why Sainz and Hamilton are struggling while he is thriving, Hadjar explained: “Yes, but these are cases where they’ve been in the same car for many years and have habits. I don’t have any habits, you know?

“I’m in an F1 car. The year before that, an F2 car, and before that, an F3 car. So I keep changing, I keep adapting. I don’t have any habits, and having habits is the worst thing for a driver,” he said.

Hadjar admits he is still enjoying every moment at the wheel of his Racing Bulls.

“In F2, at some point you get used to it and it becomes normal – it’s not impressive. In F1, it’s always impressive,” he said. “It’s not the freedom, it’s more … it’s scary. It’s really something incredible.”

The jury is now out as to how long it will take Red Bull to promote him to the main team. Speed aside, Hadjar also has impressive intelligence, and famously decorates his helmets with maths and physics equations.

“I was never supposed to be an F1 driver,” he confirmed. “I don’t even know how it happened.

“I was going to go to school, where I did very well, and I don’t know, I would have ended up studying physics or engineering or something. But it eventually became Formula 1.

“I was very passionate about cars from a very young age. I always wanted to go karting. They followed me in my crazy dreams, and that’s how it started.”