Helmut Marko changes tone on Isack Hadjar: “A strong start to the season”. Helmut Marko changes tone and praises rookie Isack Hadjar as the surprise of the season's start.

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A little over a month has passed since the first GP of the season in Australia. But for Isack Hadjar, it feels like a geological era. The young Frenchman left Melbourne in tears after spinning out during the formation lap on a wet track. It was a globally broadcast blunder that earned him sharp criticism from Red Bull’s academy mastermind, Helmut Marko. The Austrian manager did not appreciate the rookie’s emotional reaction, calling his tearful display “sappy and embarrassing.”

Now, after the next four GPs in which Isack Hadjar collected five championship points and consistently outperformed his new teammate Liam Lawson, Marko has completely changed his tone. In his editorial column for Speedweek.com, the Red Bull advisor—who has actually always believed in Hadjar, even previously calling him a “little Prost”—has now described him as the surprise of the season’s start.

“The young Parisian didn’t know most of the tracks,” Marko wrote, “but he was always quick and made very few mistakes, apart from the mishap in Australia. Isack is able to do in the race what many F1 rookies struggle with: he consistently sets good lap times and manages the tyres very well. And he does all this with relative calm.” A full endorsement.

Applause for Yuki Tsunoda
After the Jeddah race, Marko also extended compliments to someone who recently left Racing Bulls to try to ‘survive’ in the main Red Bull team alongside Max Verstappen. The reference is, of course, to Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda. The Saudi Arabian GP didn’t go well for the 2000-born driver, who had to retire after a first-lap collision with Pierre Gasly. However, Helmut Marko appears pleased with Tsunoda’s approach in these first races as a Red Bull driver.

“Yuki’s pace is good, and so is his approach,” Helmut Marko wrote. “When it gets serious in qualifying, he loses time compared to Max, but the usual gap is 2-3 tenths. An incident like the one with Pierre Gasly in Saudi Arabia can happen: according to our calculations, he could have finished sixth. That’s a huge step forward, because before him, our second car rarely got close to the top 10.” We’ll see if, after these evaluations, Red Bull finally finds some stability with its driver lineup.