Do teams have enough patience with rookies? Hadjar believes only one change 'made sense'

08:25, 16 May

byKada Sarkozi

So far this season, two driver changes have already taken place in Formula 1. Rookie Isack Hadjar reflects on these situations, answering the questions of GPblog about the matter.

In 2025, first Yuki Tsunoda replaced Liam Lawson at Red Bull Racing, and then entering the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, Franco Colapinto replaced Jack Doohan at Alpine.

“I mean I can understand when you're a Red Bull, and you want to fight for the World Championship. So this makes sense maybe in a top team. But otherwise if you want your rookie to have experience then you need to give him races, otherwise he can't race,” Hadjar answered about whether teams have enough patience with rookies at the moment in the competition.

Hadjar reflects on his first season in F1 so far

According to the Frenchman, Red Bull's top advisor Helmut Marko is so far happy with his performance in his first F1 campaign. "I think he's satisfied, yes."

Asked about what he could have done better over the recent weeks, the Frenchman explained: "You know, two weeks ago I should have scored that point. We're talking about one tenth of 57 laps, so...," he said, after he just missed out on finishing inside the Top 10 at the Miami GP.

"Yeah, it doesn't matter [if it was at new track for me]. I could have done this better. I mean, I feel happy to be in a place where I'm already talking about less details, at least in the dry because in the wet at the moment I haven't experienced much."

"There was the sprint race which I learned a lot in Miami. It was my first time on intermediate tyres, driving properly, so that was new. I think in normal conditions I'm already pushing the car to its absolute maximum, so now I'm just focusing on last details," he concluded in Imola.

This article was written in collaboration with Estéban den Toom