He entered quietly, without fanfare, leaving the media attention to other rookies. Isack Hadjar became a Formula 1 race driver without ever having won a championship, a fact that leads to a topic he addresses in his own way — few words, weighed and direct. “For a young driver, the most important thing is to impress; you can win a championship, but if you don’t impress, it’s hard to reach your goal.” Hadjar hit his target, entering Formula 1 at twenty years old and needing only a few races to send another important message to those who believed in him. Isack is worth the investment.
Monaco Grand Prix, 2021. Hadjar unexpectedly wins the Formula Regional support race after taking pole position. After the race, he returns to a small apartment rented for the weekend with his former manager. “We had just walked in when my trainer said he got a phone call: ‘Helmut Marko wants to meet you.’ I was taking a nap and told him to get lost and leave me alone. I obviously thought it was a joke, but the insistence made me realize it wasn’t. I asked, ‘Okay, when?’ and the answer was ‘Now!’ We ran to his hotel, couldn’t find a taxi, so we walked there, completely sweaty. Helmut was standing in the middle of the lobby, we sat down, and it was all very simple. He looked at me and said, ‘I’ll send you a contract, and that’s it.’ At the time it felt strange, then I understood that’s how it works.”
Today, Hadjar lives in Faenza. He wants to stay close to Racing Bulls, which welcomed him last winter. “I like it more than Milton Keynes, but in reality, I spend very little time at home. I left for Melbourne and got back just before Imola; it’s one race after another, and if there’s a free day, I usually go to the simulator in Milton Keynes.” When Isack listens, he watches his interlocutor attentively. Then, when he speaks, his gaze drifts before locking back in for the final sentence.
As he prepares for his first European weekend as a Formula 1 driver, there’s no sign of tension. His apartment in Faenza is just fifteen kilometers from the Imola circuit. He packs his backpack carefully, double-checking that everything is in place — precision, order, and focus also reflected in his passion for judo, which he practices whenever he gets the chance. Once he’s ready, he’s already ahead of those who are supposed to accompany him to his first activities of the weekend: “Shall we go?”
With him are his parents. His father Yassine is a quantum physicist, his mother Randa is a human resources director at a public company and also manages Isack’s career. The story is compelling. “My family has Algerian roots; my parents arrived in France alone at nineteen and built what they have purely through merit.” Yassine Hadjar is a well-known professional in his field, and there are physics formulas on the back of Isack’s helmet in his honor.
“When I was five, he put me on a rental kart, and it was a scary experience for me. Then two years later, my father enrolled me in a course held at a kart track just outside Paris. The program included a lesson every two weeks on Sunday mornings. Eventually, the instructor told my father, ‘Your son is good; you should buy him a kart and let him try racing.’”
“As I said, my parents worked hard to get where they are, and the same rules applied to me. ‘If you want to commit to something, you do it,’ but it was understood that I had to stand out, excel, otherwise they likely wouldn’t have supported what had become my dream.” At first, it was just his father involved. “He hates mechanics, but on the kart tracks, it was him with me, and he was my… mechanic. He did it for his son — weekends at the track and long car trips, all his free time was devoted to me. Then, after the first results came in, things got serious, and my mother stepped in.” Randa Hadjar, with a strong professional network, managed to secure the budget that allowed Isack to begin his career in single-seaters.
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