Helmut Marko labels F1 rookie Isack Hadjar the “surprise of the season”

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has branded Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar as the “surprise of the season” following his impressive start to life in Formula 1.

While much of the spotlight in 2025 has been on the second seat at Red Bull, currently occupied by Yuki Tsunoda, Hadjar has been quietly impressing the energy drinks giant with a series of strong performances at its secondary team.

After an inauspicious start to his year with a crash on the formation lap in Melbourne, the 20-year-old performed admirably in China and followed that up with his first top-10 finish in Japan last weekend.

Incredibly, Hadjar is the second-highest point scorer among the four Red Bull-backed drivers in 2025, behind only Max Verstappen, with both Tsunoda and Liam Lawson yet to break inside the top 10 so far.

The French-Algerian’s performances haven’t gone unnoticed, with Marko praising him for getting up to speed immediately after spending the last two seasons in Formula 2.

"Hadjar is the surprise of the season,” the 81-year-old told Sky Germany. “He’s the one with the fewest test kilometres in Formula 1 cars, yet he’s still racing with [Andrea Kimi] Antonelli.

"He’s calm and always there. He had a four-tenth lead over Lawson in the practice session. He’s a really big guy coming up for the future."

Red Bull shuffled its driver line-up just two races into the season, with its original signing Lawson being swapped in favour of Tsunoda from the Japanese GP.

Marko has previously clarified that Tsunoda will see out the 2025 season at Red Bull, but there are still lingering doubts over the Japanese driver’s mid-term future at the team.

Ahead of this weekend’s Bahrain GP, Hadjar said Lawson’s poor form in the RB21 has made him even more curious to understand why drivers struggle in the ‘cursed’ second seat at Red Bull.

“Honestly, now that it seems like it's really hard to be next to Max, it makes me want to go even more, to find out why, what's going on. That's still the main target,” he said.

“It's not like I don't need to work anymore. Still, I always put the pressure on me to keep delivering. So now the expectations from people are maybe a bit higher, but I keep doing what I do.

“Like I said before the season, if the car can finish in P9 or P8, I want to be there, maximise it, not being outside the top 10. If the car deserves the top 10, then I need to be on it.”