Isack Hadjar will drive in FP1 with AlphaTauri in Abu Dhabi
The French Red Bull driver will have the opportunity to participate in official Formula 1 tests for the first time.
On the occasion of the Dutch Grand Prix, Franz Tost, the Team Principal of AlphaTauri, confirmed that Isack Hadjar will take the wheel of one of the two Faenza cars during Free Practice 1, in Abu Dhabi, the last event of the 2023 season.
Each F1 team is required to field a rookie driver in two free practice sessions during the season. With Hadjar’s presence on the track in the Emirates, AlphaTauri will have fulfilled its obligation under the regulations, as Nyck de Vries, being considered a rookie at the beginning of the year, was a regular driver for the Faenza team until the British Grand Prix in July. Thus, thanks to the respective starts of Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant earlier in the year, McLaren and Williams have also already given rookies the opportunity to drive in F1 for the first time.
A beautiful reward for the French
Held in high esteem by Helmut Marko, Hadjar is currently competing in his first season in Formula 2. Only 15th in the standings before arriving in Zandvoort, the Parisian is struggling within the Hitech team, driving a car that is far from the level of the top ones. Nevertheless, he achieved a podium finish in the Sprint race in Austria, on Red Bull’s home turf.
The name of the driver whom Hadjar will replace on November 24th at Yas Marina is not yet known. By then, Red Bull will probably have provided information about the future of its young driver program, as well as the driver pairings the Austrian firm plans to field next year.
