Isack Hadjar is a driver on a mission as he looks on course for the Formula 2 championship.
The Frenchman is in his second season in Formula 2 after enduring a difficult first season with Hitech, where he finished 14th in the standings.
Moving over to Campos Racing for 2024, the 19-year-old has had a brilliant season, winning four Feature Races so far at Melbourne, Imola, Silverstone and Spa. Hadjar is one more Feature Race win away from equalling Charles Leclerc’s record set in 2017.
With his future beyond this season being uncertain, speaking during practice at Monza on Sky Sports F1, Alex Brundle believes Hadjar has put himself in with a shout for a potential Formula 1 seat.
Isack Hadjar is in the ‘shop window’ for a Formula 1 seat
Hadjar currently leads the drivers’ standings with 165 points, with Gabriel Bortoleto 36 points behind.
READ MORE: Why Isack Hadjar’s engineer feels TV broadcasts have given Red Bull junior an ‘unfair image’
The Red Bull academy driver is an outside option for an F1 seat, but the Red Bull conversation is a complicated one. Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo are fighting to keep their seats at Red Bull and RB respectively, but Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson and further up the pecking order than Hadjar to get the opportunity.
With his performances this season, Brundle thinks Hadjar has done enough to be in consideration for a seat at either Red Bull team.
He said: “Especially with everything that’s going on further up the chain at Red Bull, Hadjar must be sitting in meetings and going: ‘look, the nature of this is that I’m supposed to perform. The nature of the Red Bull academy programme is that we’re supposed to put in Formula 2, I’m supposed to perform as I am, and then you’re supposed to put me in Formula 1. What part of that is not happening?’
“And he would be right, wouldn’t he?
“165 points at this stage, 129 points for Gabriel Bortoleto, looking strong for the rest of the season, needs to carry on with this form.
“But realistically, he’s doing everything he can do, both inside the car and outside the car, where I think he’s made great strides Hadjar, actually in the way that he carries himself in the paddock in the way that he is over the radio and the way that he’s managing interviews like the one we just saw.
“And he’s doing a great job to put himself in the shop window.”
READ MORE: Has Andrea Kimi Antonelli done enough to earn an F1 drive with Mercedes in his maiden F2 season?
Can Isack Hadjar make it to Formula 1?
Hadjar’s performances more than justify a seat in F1 as his ability has clearly been shown by four victories and leading the F2 championship.
But with such a complex situation Red Bull find themselves in, it is perhaps unlikely that Hadjar’s F1 future lies with the defending champions.
F1 is notoriously a difficult sport to enter, particularly for F2 drivers. Four of the last five F2 champions – Nyck de Vries, Oscar Piastri, Felipe Drugovich and Theo Pourchaire – failed to break into F1 the following year after their title success.
While de Vries and Piastri eventually did make it to F1, it still presents a bleak short-term future for Hadjar.