Isack Hadjar: My ultimate driver

22 August 2022

Formula 3 Championship leader Isack Hadjar is the latest driver on the 2022 grid to go through what makes his list for the ultimate driver.

The Hitech Grand Prix man is fond of a certain French F1 Champion but there's a bit of everything from a selection of familiar greats.

INTELLIGENCE

"Alain Prost because I think he was the smartest driver ever to race. I admire that about him, his thinking about the points all the time. I’m not that type of driver but it’s quite impressive."

DRIVING IN THE WET/DRY

"It’s between three drivers. Lewis Hamilton, Ayrton Senna and Max Verstappen. If I could combine them all into one then it’d be that but for one choice, I’ll say Senna. He was just so impressive because back in the day, they had no assists at all, it was quite brutal. In the wet, you could see that he was really fighting with the car compared to the others, he was finding the grip where others couldn’t. That’s just super impressive."

"In the dry, I'd say Hamilton. His tyre management, his race pace. He’s quite smart I would say. He’s the most complete driver over a race distance. Turkey 2020 for me was the race when he really impressed. It was a wet race, but he dealt really well with the strategy. There’s other races like Brazil last year that he was just the best."

TYRE MANAGEMENT

"Lewis. Or Michael Schumacher. When you see his onboards, he’s really really precise, no sliding around. When you’re taking car of the tyres, you want to change the compromise to the corner. In a Qualifying lap, you’re focusing more on entry speed and minimum speed so you’re asking a lot of the tyre in terms of energy. But in the race, you want to focus more on the exit, protecting your position and being as gentle on the tyres as possible."

SMOOTH OR AGGRESSIVE DRIVING STYLE

"Aggressive! I’m a late-braker, carry lots of speed into the corners too. That’s my style."

QUALIFYING

"There are three for me again. Senna, Max and Charles Leclerc. I would say Charles is the one who has impressed the most in Qualifying. His ability on that last lap in Q3 to put everything together is just amazing."

OVERTAKING

"Max. Has to be Max. Brazil 2016, Silverstone too when he passed Nico Rosberg in the wet. Last year, his defensive moves against Lewis. He’s really good under braking. He knows what he’s doing and is aware of you. I would also pick Fernando Alonso. He’s a really good fighter and whatever car you give him, he will extract 100% out of it."