Isack Hadjar has spoken fondly of new Racing Bulls team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, who he will partner with in the 2025 Formula 1 campaign.
After Sergio Perez was let go by Red Bull on Wednesday and Liam Lawson was announced as the Mexican’s replacement a day later, a vacancy was left open at the Faenza-based sister squad, Racing Bulls.
On Friday, Hadjar was the lucky Red Bull junior selected to progress from Formula 2 to the big leagues.
The Frenchman will be team-mates with Tsunoda, who is set to embark on his fifth year in Faenza and Hadjar revealed the Japanese driver is one he very much looks up to.
“I’m very excited to step into my new role at VCARB, this is huge for myself, my family and all the people who have believed in me from the beginning,” Hadjar said.
“The journey from karting through the ranks in single-seaters, to now being in Formula 1 is the moment I’ve been working towards my whole life, it is the dream.
“I feel like I’m stepping into a whole new universe, driving a much faster car and racing with the best drivers in the world.
“It’ll be a huge learning curve, but I’m ready to work hard and do the best I can for the team.
“I look forward to working with and learning from Yuki, I’ve always looked up to him, he went through the Red Bull Junior Programme, like myself, and we’ve shared a similar path to F1.
“He’s very experienced and will be good to learn from.”
Racing Bulls has a blend of youth and experience with new driver line-up
While Tsunoda will rightly feel aggrieved that he has been spurned by Red Bull, his position at Racing Bulls makes him the Italian-based team’s leader on the driver front.
With a team-mate who openly looks up to him, Tsunoda has the role of helping bring Hadjar up to speed in the F1 arena.
Back in August, Motorsport Week spoke with Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer, before Daniel Ricciardo was let go and long before this Red Bull driver merry-go-round began.
Bayer spoke about his ideal driver line-up being one of youth and experience and he named Tsunoda as a driver capable of living up to the latter.
“I strongly believe that you need to have one experienced driver and experienced meaning somebody like Yuki, who has now done a couple of years,” said Bayer.
“Daniel helped us to fine-tune Yuki and sort of polish the edges and certainly Yuki is somebody who is able to do that in the future.
“I see the pairing of taking somebody under your wings, goes quite well with the Red Bull philosophy actually.”
Now it’s time for Tsunoda to take Hadjar under his wings.
READ MORE – Red Bull junior Isack Hadjar promoted to Racing Bulls F1 2025 seat
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