Tost laughs at Hadjar: 'Hope this wasn't the best day of his life'

It was quite a surprising choice. After all, with his 14th place in the Formula 2 standings, one cannot speak of a top season. Nevertheless, AlphaTauri and Red Bull Racing chose to let Isack Hadjar drive in FP1 in a Grand Prix weekend this season. In Abu Dhabi, he will replace one of the Red Bull men on a one-off basis; in Mexico, the French-Algerian driver stepped into Yuki Tsunoda's car on Friday.

As he drove his final metres in the Italian team's car, Hadjar enthusiastically said over the board radio: 'This is the best day of my life!' Team boss Franz Tost had also heard this message. More than an hour after Hadjar's debut, the Austrian reacted to the words of the overjoyed talent.

"I don't hope that this was his best day of his life," Tost sent a message to Hadjer jokingly. "I hope that he wins races and championships. This shouldn’t be the best day of his life. He did a good job, I must say. We were all impressed by him. He was calm when he went out."

Tost foresees permanent place in Formula One for Hadjar

AlphaTauri immediately put the Red Bull junior through his paces. "He was calm when he went out. He was out with three different sets of tyres. The prototype tyre, the medium and the soft. With all these different compounds, I must say that he really did a good job. His technical feedback was also quite good because if you compare it to the data, it's a very high correlation. We are really impressed and I think that he will be soon in Formula 1."

Hadjar himself appeared in front of Viaplay's camera and was no less enthusiastic than earlier in the day. "Yes, it was basically the best hour in my life," he said. "It was just amazing. It was my first ever time driving an F1 car. Never had a private test or anything. It was my first ever time, so I was really worried, but it went pretty smooth, so I'm happy."

"This car is impressive," he continued. "And it was also an official session, so it wasn't a private test for which I would have been more confident. So it was pretty stressful. But once the bike started, it went normally."

Hadjar wants to follow up his debut soon

Hadjar will in principle also drive in Formula 2 in 2024. In any case, this session was already good for his career. "Honestly, not so much about my career, but in terms of learning experience, it's just a lot. I learned a lot today and I just can't wait to be back in the car."