Isack Hadjar confident of race wins in F1 2026 abo...

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New Purple Bull signing Isack Hadjar is assured that he can win races within the 2026 Formulation 1 marketing campaign regardless of the struggles his predecessors confronted in opposition to Max Verstappen.

The 21-year-old will companion the four-time world champion this 12 months after changing Yuki Tsunoda, who endured a disastrous 22-round stint with Purple Bull final season by scoring simply 30 factors.

However Tsunoda isn’t the one driver to wrestle alongside Verstappen, as Liam Lawson, Sergio Perez, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly have all tried and failed in what has been an actual downside for the workforce since Daniel Ricciardo left in 2018.

So there have been requires Hadjar to stick with sister squad Racing Bulls after a formidable rookie marketing campaign, however the temptation was clearly an excessive amount of – and the early indicators are literally optimistic.

“The joy of preventing for wins in opposition to prime drivers continues to be going to be right here and that is what issues probably the most,” stated Hadjar throughout this week’s 2026 Bahrain pre-season check. “However nonetheless, you’d love to do it in vehicles which are tremendous, tremendous quick. It makes it a bit higher.”

Purple Bull has really been one of many standout groups in Bahrain, as Verstappen accomplished probably the most mileage with 136 laps on Wednesday inflicting many paddock members to assert that the brand new RBPT is the strongest on the grid.

Max Verstappen, Purple Bull Racing, Isack Hadjar, Purple Bull Racing

Picture by: Kym Illman / Getty Pictures

And though a hydraulic leak prevented Hadjar from correctly working on Thursday morning, he bounced again with 86 laps and the fifth-fastest lap within the afternoon leaving the Frenchman buoyed for the season forward.

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“Clearly, that first race win is on the radar – that may be nice,” he added. “I might wish to see our automobile progressing sooner than the opposite groups. I feel that may even be very gratifying.”

When Hadjar was then requested if he’s assured of reaching such a aim within the RB22, he responded with a really sharp “yeah”.

The sharp solutions continued, significantly when he was requested about his crash within the personal Barcelona shakedown a fortnight in the past. He went off on the last nook on day two, which Hadjar put down to switching from wets to intermediates on a rain-soaked track.

The F1 group naturally made comparisons to when Gasly crashed on day two of 2019 pre-season testing, which began his horrid 12-round stint with the Austrian outfit. Questions of will Hadjar endure the identical destiny? Is historical past simply repeating itself?

All of which was put to Hadjar, who sarcastically responded: “After I crashed, I considered it immediately, I considered Pierre. So I went on Twitter and I learn all the things, and I used to be like, ‘I am screwed for the entire season’ and that is how I moved on, actually.”

So Hadjar clearly has the boldness to play a key position within the frontrunning vehicles this 12 months, not being fazed by the entire regulation change or being Verstappen’s team-mate.