Today's Edition
BATOOL GHAITH & KUUMAR SHYAM (ABU DHABI)
This Formula 1 season has been a great year for the emerging drivers, none more so than for Isack Hadjar, the first Arab driver in the sport.
In his rookie year, even with fewer opportunities, he has earned promotion to drive alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing for the 2026 season. The level-up for the French-Algerian driver is well deserved. And Abu Dhabi has been key to his acceleration in the sport.
Speaking at a press conference ahead of Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Hadjar admitted that returning to the familiar Yas Marina Circuit offers a steadiness amid the chaos of the season.
Addressing a question from Aletihad about his years in the UAE, the 21-year-old said: “It feels like coming home,” he said, looking out at the track where, just four years ago, he was another ambitious teenager trying to impress on the Asian winter series circuit.
“Yas Marina is probably the track I have raced the most in my career,” he said. “It is the only track, apart from Mexico, where I have driven the most across categories, so I know it very well.”
Hadjar was speaking alongside Charles Leclerc and George Russell in an early media interaction ahead of the season finale, where most of the questions were for the drivers looking ahead to the new season.
Hadjar spoke with clear emotion about returning to the venue where he cut his teeth as a teenager competing in the F3 Asian Championship with Evans GP and later in the Formula Regional Asian Championship with Hitech Grand Prix.
For him, the weekend represents both an ending and a beginning – the end of his rookie season with the secondary outfit, Racing Bulls, and the start of his elevation to the sport’s most prestigious competition.
“It is a huge moment, all the hard work from the past three years is being rewarded now. I am very excited to step into a new era of Formula 1,” he said, acknowledging the magnitude of joining the team he once admired from afar. He added: “I grew up watching Red Bull winning races as a kid. Now I get to face the best in the world and see what that feels like.”
Hadjar’s promotion stands out in a whirlwind year for a rookie cohort not seen on this scale since 2010. As many as six recruits – Jack Doohan, Kimi Antonelli, Ollie Bearman, Liam Lawson, Gabriel Bortoleto and Hadjar – got chances to race at the elite level.
In Hadjar’s case, the growth has been dramatic: from crashing on the formation lap of his first race in Australia and leaving the car in tears, to scoring 10 top-10 finishes and securing his maiden podium at Zandvoort behind Oscar Piastri and Verstappen.
In the constructors’ championship, Red Bull sorely lacked a support driver for Verstappen. After Sergio Perez’s departure, Lawson lasted just two races and Yuki Tsunoda managed only 33 points to Verstappen’s 396.
With Honda concluding their engine partnership with Red Bull at the end of 2025, the Japanese driver’s future had long appeared uncertain. The team, now set to build its own power units with support from Ford, has opted for youth and potential over experience.
Meanwhile, the talk on the circuit is that the Red Bull car is tailored to Verstappen’s aggressive driving style, a reality that has overwhelmed all recent teammates.
Yet, Hadjar remains unfazed, saying he is keen to “start from scratch” as he integrates fully with the senior team. A perfect example of the tough road that lies ahead sat next to him -Charles Leclerc.
An academy product at Ferrari, he debuted at Sauber, then showed promise next year for Ferrari in 2019 but had two winless seasons thereafter. He has eight wins so far, but Ferrari’s struggles with the right car has hindered him this year, and this was evident at the Qatar Grand Prix last week.
“We have our ideas of what went wrong, however, we do not have the solution to it. For this weekend, I expect us to be back to where we should be,” Leclerc said.
Before Hadjar can prove he can rise to the challenge at his new marque, he will use a return trip to Abu Dhabi’s familiar surrounds to assure Red Bull that he is the right choice.
