Hadjar reflects on ‘special moment’ with Anthony Hamilton

Isack Hadjar has praised Lewis Hamilton and his father Anthony for being “classy guys” after both showed their support following his crash on the formation lap of the Australian Grand Prix, with the Frenchman calling Anthony Hamilton’s approach a “special moment”.

After a solid performance in Qualifying saw him just miss out on progressing to Q3 in P11, Hadjar’s debut F1 race was over before it started when he spun into the barriers amid wet conditions at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit.

The Racing Bulls driver was visibly emotional after stepping out of the car and received a heartfelt embrace from Anthony Hamilton upon his return to the paddock, with Lewis’ father seen speaking with the youngster and holding an arm around him as they walked.

When asked ahead of this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix about how much this had meant to him – and if Lewis Hamilton had also been in touch – Hadjar revealed that Anthony had compared the incident to one that happened to his son during his debut Formula 1 season in 2007.

2025 Australian Grand Prix: Rookie Hadjar spins out of maiden race on the formation lap

“He said it reminded him of Lewis parking the car in the pit entry in Shanghai,” Hadjar explained. “It was a nice moment, sharing time with someone like Anthony, the dad of my idol. It was quite a special moment. Lewis sent me a message later that day, so they’re really classy guys.”

In terms of how quickly he had bounced back from the events of Sunday, the 20-year-old commented: “I would say on Monday already I felt quite a lot better, especially knowing it’s a back-to-back weekend, so [it’s] good to be back quite early rather than having a month to dwell on it.”

And despite the unfortunate end to his first F1 race weekend, Hadjar has been able to take the positives from the performance displayed up until that point.

“I would say we were surprisingly faster than we thought,” he reflected. “Looking at Bahrain [pre-season testing], in Bahrain it’s hard to really understand where you’re at in the midfield, you don’t know how much everyone is hiding or not.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 16: Anthony Hamilton with Isack Hadjar of France and Visa Cash App — Hadjar appreciated the support shown by Anthony Hamilton following his early exit from the Australian Grand Prix

“But going into Melbourne, the car was really good and straight from FP1 I think I had a really nice feeling with the car. I was quite comfortable and I was as close as Yuki [Tsunoda] as I wanted to be, so I think there were lots of positives in terms of pure performance.”

The Shanghai International Circuit is a new one for Hadjar and, while he has spent plenty of time familiarising himself with the venue on the simulator, he admits that the addition of the Sprint this weekend – meaning that only one practice session will take place – poses an extra challenge.

“In terms of the approach, I would say I’m quite used to this; [during] the last three years that’s what I’ve been doing [in Formula 2 and Formula 3], with FP and straight into Qualifying with only a few push laps,” Hadjar conceded.

“So the approach I know. I know how to get it right, but of course I would rather have three practice sessions.”