Isack Hadjar is the newest F1 driver to be paired up with Max Verstappen at Crimson Bull, and the Frenchman is already held in excessive regard by his workforce boss, Laurent Mekies.
After a debut marketing campaign that stood out as one of many extra memorable rookie seasons in current reminiscence, Isack Hadjar now finds himself as one of the crucial promising younger abilities on the grid.
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The 21-year-old didn’t waste time getting observed. In what was a mean midfield automobile, he nonetheless managed to impress proper from the beginning. The spotlight got here at Zandvoort, the place he took a spot on the rostrum, however there have been loads of different moments that confirmed his potential all year long.
One side of his recreation that basically caught folks’s consideration was his velocity over a single lap. He was typically making it into Q3 throughout qualifying classes and even managed to outperform skilled drivers like Lewis Hamilton greater than as soon as.
Laurent Mekies praises Isack Hadjar’s ‘unimaginable uncooked velocity’
Photograph by Clive Rose – Components 1/Components 1 by way of Getty Photographs
Laurent Mekies appeared on the James Allen on F1 podcast and was requested how he plans to defend the 21-year-old from the inevitable scrutiny of being Max Verstappen’s teammate.
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The Crimson Bull workforce principal responded, “Firstly, we aren’t hiding behind the truth that we have to do a greater job with that second automobile, and that features the second a part of final 12 months.
“I assume we made some progress with Yuki [Tsunoda], however not on the degree that we felt we must always have reached. So we’re conscious that we have to do a greater job there.
“There isn’t any simple resolution, so it’s a posh equation that we method as such. Now, I believe Isack comes with unimaginable uncooked velocity. We imagine in uncooked velocity.”
“We expect the extent at which he began final 12 months’s season, his beginning velocity, was excellent. Excellent on the degree of the very, easiest, however then we equally imagine that the massive guys, the champions not solely have they got an unimaginable place to begin however they progress.
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“It’s not solely a development in maturity or in dialogues with the engineers; they really go quicker. You flip up at race 5 or race ten they usually begin to do one thing with the automobile that they haven’t achieved earlier than.”
“And we noticed that in Isack final 12 months at Racing Bulls. We’re satisfied that potential is mega.”
Isack Hadjar has set the brand new normal for Racing Bulls rookies
After a powerful rookie season, Hadjar has turn into the usual for all younger drivers coming via the Crimson Bull growth system on their approach to a full-time seat with Racing Bulls.
His alternative on the Faenza-based workforce, Arvid Lindblad, has already been advised he’s not anticipated to comply with in Hadjar’s footsteps – a judgement that could be a bit early given how little time he’s had in F1.
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Hadjar’s podium end final season was the primary top-three outcome for a Racing Bulls driver since Pierre Gasly’s third place on the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
