French-Algerian F1 star Isack Hadjar made his F1 debut in 2025 and got his first podium in the same season. The former VCARB driver came out and revealed the clumsy aftermath of his first podium with Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri as he detailed his experience.
Isack Hadjar joined VCARB ahead of the 2025 season as Liam Lawson’s replacement, who was promoted to the Red Bull Racing seat. The French-Algerian driver had a poor start to the campaign after a crash on the warm-up lap in tricky wet conditions in Australia.
However, Hadjar soon found his feet within the team and scored his first podium in the race after the summer break, i.e., the Dutch GP. As Lando Norris retired in the closing laps of the race, the VCARB driver was promoted into the Top 3 of the classification and maintained the same position to the chequered flag to take his first podium in F1.
Isack Hadjar recently featured on the Talking Bull podcast and reflected on his debut season in F1. While doing the same, the former VCARB driver detailed the clumsy aftermath of his podium at the Dutch GP. Hadjar highlighted stinking in the sweaty race suit, whereas Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen, who were on the podium with him, were already prepared to combat the same.
“I remember being in the cooldown room with Max and Oscar. And they were ready for that. And, you know, they had their trainers with towels, so they could change and I was like, I looked at Harry, my guy. I was like ‘you brought me a towel?’ He was like ‘no, of course.’ And they all had like brand new suits because after the podium you stink and they get changed and they had like this custom towel where they fit it around them so they can actually like get changed without like- I was amazed. I was like wow.”
“During press conference and these guys smelled good. They were brand new and I was like ‘that’s not fair.’” added Hadjar
F1 race winner expects Isack Hadjar to break the Red Bull second seat curse
Many drivers, including the likes of Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Liam Lawson, and Yuki Tsunoda, failed to perform in the second Red Bull seat alongside Max Verstappen. Isack Hadjar was promoted to the Milton Keynes-based team as the French-Algerian driver replaced Yuki Tsunoda.
Johnny Herbert featured on the latest episode of the Stay on Track podcast and expected Hadjar to break the second seat curse at Red Bull, as he said,
“He seemed to be the one able to give the team the information they needed to deliver what he was producing on the racetrack. That’s a strength he can certainly take with him to Red Bull. But that’s exactly how Max thinks, just on a much bigger scale.”
The new set of regulations with the numerous unknowns will also somewhat level the playing field for Isack Hadjar. However, Sergio Perez recently came out in a podcast and detailed how Red Bull is set up around Max Verstappen.
