Interview with Isack Hadjar: “My signature? A mixture of emotions”

A little over two weeks after the announcement of your tenure, has your brain fully grasped the fact that you are going to become a pilot? Formula 1 ?

I still ask myself that question every day! I don't really realize it, because I haven't really started the work yet. It will become more concrete when I return to the factory and take to the track in Bahrain for the winter tests (26-28 February. Ed.). I can't wait.

You become the first Frenchman since Pierre Gasly in 2017 to have a chance in F1…

It's great, obviously. I'm especially the second pure FFSA product to go to F1 in the space of seven years. The performance is rather very good, knowing that we are talking about an F1 grid. It shows that the Federation is working very well.

Does representing your country bring extra pressure?

I am representing myself, that's already not bad! (Laughs) Well beyond France, I especially consider that I will represent the FFSA and the DTN (national technical director. Editor's note), Mr. Christophe Lollier. He and the Federation believed in me from the very beginning, and I owe them a lot.

Over the past five years, you have often told us about your ambition and your certainty about becoming an F1 driver. Where does this aplomb and unwavering faith in you come from?

I'm not the only one who thinks like that among drivers. It's just that some people do and others don't. At that level, if you don't think you're the best, you have to stop. I've always been certain that I have the ability to get there. Not everything is always in our hands, there are a lot of external factors, planets that have to be aligned, but since I was a kid, I've known that when I'm given a steering wheel and two pedals, it's natural for me to go fast and think that