Hadjar dreaming of the 'main target' of a second seat next to Verstappen at Red Bull

Isack Hadjar continues to dream about the potential of a Red Bull seat after just three Formula 1 weekends, touting it as his "main target".

The French-Algerian driver had a hugely impressive weekend at the Japanese Grand Prix, qualifying in an impressive seventh place to then go on and finish the race in eighth, finishing second out of the rookies behind the Mercedes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

It highlights the super start the 20-year-old has made, joining the pinnacle of motorsport after finishing P2 in the Formula 2 championship last season, making up for his formation lap crash at the Australian Grand Prix with fine drives at the Chinese Grand Prix and Suzuka.

Hadjar dreaming about potential Red Bull future

During the press conference, Hadjar expressed his dream of being able to drive alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing, with the second seat at the Austrian team still remaining a mystery.

After the disappointing Sergio Pérez was replaced by Liam Lawson over the winter break, the New Zealander failed to make an impression at the Austrian team and was replaced by Yuki Tsunoda.

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The Japanese driver only finished twelfth in his home race, while Max Verstappen took the victory. However, all of this does not seem to deter Hadjar from dreaming of a second seat next to the Dutchman.

"Honestly, now that it seems like it's really hard to be next to Max, it makes me want to push even more – to find out why, what's going on. But yeah, [the Red Bull second seat] is still the main target," said Hadjar to several media sources, including GPblog, at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Hadjar now getting to know Lawson after another change

Due to the driver change between Red Bull and Racing Bulls, Hadjar has already had a second teammate in Lawson: "We have already played Paddle and Call of Duty together," Hadjar continued. "I think there are worse relationships!"

However, Hadjar still had to get used to the fact that he had a new teammate in Japan: "Yuki, when he was going out on track in FP1, he was always setting a solid benchmark straight away because he has that experience. I feel like Liam and I, we are both rookies, and every time we go out on track, we're exploring maybe a bit more than he used to do, that’s for sure," he concluded.

This article was written in collaboration with Mitchell van de Hoef