Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar became the third rookie on the grid to score points in 2025 after a P8 finish at the 2025 F1 Japanese GP, joining the ranks of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and Haas’ Oliver Bearman. Hadjar also outperformed former teammate Yuki Tsunoda, now at Red Bull, who finished P12, and new teammate Liam Lawson who finished P17. The Racing Bulls’ rookie now sits 13th in the World Drivers’ Championship standings, just one point behind Bearman.
Hadjar “left nothing on the table” at F1 Japanese GP
Despite losing a place at the start to Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, Hadjar believes he executed his 2025 F1 Japanese GP race perfectly.
“Yeah, all we could have done today was P8, and we did it. I think it was a perfectly executed race.”
He enjoyed strong pace throughout the race and stated that the performance of his tyres had helped his race. This strong pace, Hadjar explained, had helped him build a sufficient gap to Williams’ Alex Albon, a former Red Bull junior, allowing him to hold on to his P8 finish, despite Albon making up time.
“Left nothing on the table, and the pace was definitely strong.”
“Especially on the medium, on the first stint, I felt really, really strong. And the first half as well, on the hard, and later on [with] Alex was just fine. He was catching bit by bit, but I had enough gap to secure the place. So we still need to review it, but all-in-all, it was good.”
Hadjar’s preparation for Bahrain have “been nice”
After a successful weekend in Japan, Hadjar has turned his eyes to the upcoming Bahrain GP. After recently completing pre-season testing with Racing Bulls at the Sakhir International Circuit, Hadjar is looking forward to racing on a more familiar track. He also previously raced at the circuit in F2, scoring points in both 2023 and 2024.
“It’s been nice,” he said when asked about his preparation for Bahrain, “Especially with three practice sessions, all the sim prep we got.”
“There’s always going to be the final tenth of a second where you perfectly know a track, but I don’t feel like it’s making it more difficult.”
Hadjar got “points on merit” in Japan
Hadjar will be hoping to find similar success in Bahrain after such a strong weekend in Suzuka. The Racing Bulls rookie has had a difficult start to his season. However, when asked if he had “found some rhythm”, Hadjar argued that he had already had rhythm at the start of the season, despite his disastrous Melbourne outing.
“I think I found some rhythm in FP1 in Melbourne already. Then we had this mess up in Shanghai, we were on four points, quite comfortably. So I think now everything was put together and we got points on merit.“
