One of Formula 1’s most impressive drivers in 2025 has been told he needs to “cheer up a bit”, after admitting it is “quite rare” that he celebrates a job well done.
Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar has been a revelation in his maiden F1 season, scoring points six times to be the second-best Red Bull driver in the championship after Max Verstappen, with some extremely eye-catching performances.
But Hadjar, who can be very emotional in the car and has quickly become one of F1’s most self-critical drivers out of it, has sometimes seemed to be the only person unhappy with his performance.
In Belgium last week, for example, Hadjar was not satisfied to be in Q3 and eighth on the grid, because he saw Alex Albon was fifth and only one tenth of a second faster - and felt he should have been able to beat him.
“I need to cheer up a bit more when I have a good result for my team,” Hadjar said in Hungary on Thursday.
Asked if he does not celebrate his successes as much as he should have, Hadjar replied: “When I have a very good result and I know there was more left on the table, I could've done a better job, I tend to not be...I'm self-critical a lot.
“And I've been told by my entourage I need to cheer up a bit more because the mechanics, the engineers, they need to hear positive things.
“But I can tell you, when I do the job, and I'm happy with myself, if there's someone that celebrates and goes crazy, it's me.
“But it's quite rare.”
Hadjar admitted this is only “a position there and there” rather than major mistakes, but said “that’s my mindset”. He also dismissed a question about whether he deserves more credit because “I've had enough credit since the start of the year, so…I'm not going to take the piss too much on that, to be honest!”.
Asked if he had surprised himself in F1 so far, Hadjar said: “Not really. Because I think if you make it to F1, it's not by luck. You know you're quite OK. But at the same time you always have doubt.
“You always question yourself - am I good enough? And that's what I thought, I had doubts, because I didn't have a lot of mileage. It's a big step from F2.
“But in the end now I'm fully used to the speed and no, I'm not surprised.”
Hadjar is widely perceived to have been F1’s most impressive rookie so far this year, and half-jokingly answered “apart from me?” when asked who he thought had that claim.
He was in the points on his first trip to legendary F1 venue Japan, and scored a season-best sixth in Monaco. That came in the middle of a hat-trick of very strong results at the start of the European leg of the season.
A solitary point in the Belgium sprint last weekend ended Hadjar’s longest point-less streak so far in F1 - three events - although he did then make it four grands prix in a row without scoring as an engine problem denied him a top-10 finish on Sunday at Spa.
Still, Hadjar has convinced Red Bull so much that he is in the frame to replace Yuki Tsunoda at the senior team should a decision be made to change Max Verstappen’s team-mate again.
This reflects a major shift in career momentum since the doubt late last year whether he would step up into F1 at all, given it took Red Bull dropping Sergio Perez and rejigging its line-ups to make a vacancy for Hadjar at Racing Bulls.
“It was very uncertain, very stressful,” said Hadjar, about the end of 2024.
“I was fighting for F2 at the time so I was trying to give my best. I didn't know [if F1 was certain] until I got the call.
“So, it's been a tough ride. But they made the right decision, so I'm happy!”
