After the first nine rounds, Isack Hadjar looked the obvious pick to be top rookie so far this season. He’s endured a lean spell since then, and fellow newcomer Gabriel Bortoleto has raised his game, but Hadjar has nonetheless made a strong start following his promotion to Formula 1.
He began the year facing the considerably more experienced Yuki Tsunoda at Racing Bulls. That changed after just two races, but Hadjar was already giving a good account of himself in qualifying, beating Tsunoda in his last appearance before being moved into Red Bull’s other team.
So by his third grand prix Hadjar was already facing his second different team mate in Liam Lawson. But if Hadjar’s humiliating pre-race retirement at a wet Melbourne raised doubts over his potential, he answered them with a fine showing on his first visit to Suzuka. He overcame considerable pain to take seventh on the grid and only lost a position to Lewis Hamilton as he claimed the first points of his career.
After a sub-par weekend in Bahrain, Hadjar earned his next point in Jeddah with a smart pass on Fernando Alonso following a Safety Car restart. He could have had another in Miami had he managed to stay within five seconds of the penalised Red Bull driver.
Hadjar soon began to look like a regular in Q3 and the points. He could have started higher than he did at Imola but still topped up his tally with ninth.
In Monaco he rebounded from a tricky build-up to produce another excellent qualifying performance at one of the toughest grand prix tracks. He duly converted it for a best-yet of sixth in what passed for an F1 race around the principality.
Isack Hadjar
| Best | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP start | 5 | 14 |
| GP finish | 6 | 20 |
| Points | 22 | |
But his run of top 10 finishes came to an end after his drive to seventh in Spain (where he lost one place to a fresh-tyred Nico Hulkenberg near the end). In Canada and Austria he didn’t look quick enough for points, but team mate Lawson took a strong sixth at the latter.
Hadjar could do little to avoid hitting Andrea Kimi Antonelli in blind spray at Silverstone. Although he picked up a point in the Spa sprint race, a technical problem in the grand prix left him plummeting down the order.
He qualified in the top 10 again in Hungary but was out-run to the points places by Lawson. Hadjar’s team mate has now out-scored him 16-1 over the last four rounds, indicating F1’s top rookie at the moment may have a tougher time in the second half of the season.
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