Isack Hadjar has revealed his "never give up" attitude in chasing the F2 title after a tough start to the season has been down to him knowing it was his "last shot for Formula 1".
The 20-year-old is the prime candidate to replace either Liam Lawson or Yuki Tsunoda at RB in 2025 should Red Bull shuffle its pack with the removal of Sergio Perez at Red Bull.
Hadjar enters the Formula 2 season-ending Abu Dhabi weekend trailing points leader Gabriel Bortoleto by half a point.
But the pressure of going to battle for title honours is far less than the pressure felt at the start of the year, claims the Frenchman, with his final shot at an F1 seat then on the line.
“I remember after Jeddah when I had like five points on the board and Zane (Maloney) had probably 60 and I knew this season was my last shot for Formula 1,” said the Red Bull junior.
“I had this pressure of having to deliver and clearly, after round two it was how am I even going to start being on the podium and scoring points when I literally had all of the pace in the world but these failures and technical issues I had were not allowing me to unlock the podiums and momentum.
“I always kept my head down and from Melbourne, I had a really strong run. Never give up, basically.”
Hadjar scored just once in the opening four races with a fourth place in the Bahrain sprint outing, but this was followed by a streak of 13 races when he failed to register just three times.
During this period, he took feature race wins in Australia, Imola and Silverstone, vaulting himself to the top of the table – something that he was all the more grateful of during the four-event lean period that followed.
Reflecting on the events of Qatar last weekend which saw him finish ahead of Bortoleto in each race, the feature race by virtue of a penalty for the Brazilian, Hadjar added: “Sunday was critical for me somehow to finish ahead of him. I started on the wrong foot and saw my title chances fall a bit apart after the start of the race but luckily, our strategy really paid off.
"We bet on that safety car and he got the penalty as well. It was a tense moment that we dealt with perfectly.
“I think it’s the weekend I’m going to enjoy the most. I feel like I’ve done all of the hard work already. Now, I know the process and how it works, so I’m not going to change anything.
“I really feel much less pressure than at the start of the season. I’m just going to enjoy myself and I really want to bring the title to Campos, so I think it’ll be the most enjoyable weekend so far.”
Hadjar will be doubling up his weekend by replacing Max Verstappen in FP1 for Red Bull, meaning he must again negotiate the tricky quickfire switch back to an F2 headspace ahead of qualifying – something he has managed at Silverstone and twice in 2023 with RB and Red Bull.
Asked by Autosport if he had considered backing out of this opportunity, he said: “Absolutely not. Last time I did it at Silverstone, it played out pretty good for me, so I don’t see the…it’s true, it’s really weird to go back to the F2 [car], I think it’s a hard challenge but I’ve done this exercise twice now and it has been fine for me on both occasions.
"So I’m really confident and I know how to process to be back on the pace on that second run (qualifying) when it really matters.”
