Before he finished sixth at the 2026 United States Grand Prix, the Red Bull F1 driver spoke to Boardroom about his life outside the cockpit.
Isack Hadjar is having a pretty chill day when I talk to him in the Red Bull suite at the 2026 United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. It’s the media day, so for one of the drivers of one of F1’s top teams, these days can be grueling. But, so far, for Hadjar it’s been light. “It’s going to be a long day,” he tells me before we start talking about what he loves about French rap and what sort of car he would own he if he for some reason moved to Texas. He’s soft-spoken, which makes it a little hard to hear him over the blaring electronic music coming from a speaker right behind us. He volume raises when discussing the best rappers, though. Drake, Lil Baby, and Gunna are his current favorites. He ranks Drake’s Take Care at the top of his discography. And then there’s “Never Recover,” the song he has played before getting in the car for five years, for reasons he can’t fully explain.
If you follow Formula 1, you probably know the story. Hadjar is a 22-year-old French-Algerian kid from Paris who came up through Red Bull’s junior program. He was the last rookie named to the 2025 grid, slotted into a Racing Bulls seat after a winter of reshuffling at the top. By late summer he was standing on the podium at Zandvoort, in third, next to Max Verstappen. This year he became Verstappen’s teammate. He missed three races with a wrist injury, then came back to finish third in Baku, and Red Bull has already decided kept him for 2027.
He belongs to a generation that learned to race on two pedals and paddle shifters, but he agrees with the purists that a real sports car needs a clutch, even though his own GT2 RS doesn’t have one. He loves rap, but only focuses on lyrics when they’re in French. He’s a man of multitudes.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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BOARDROOM: A few French rap artists have made songs about you.
ISACK HADJAR: Yeah, not many. One guy in particular.
There are a lot of athletes who never get songs made about them.
That’s true.
If we have readers who have never listened to French rap, where should they start?
That’s tough. I would say probably an artist like Tiakola. It gives to me a vibe closer to what an American would listen to. It’s not too niche. I don’t even consider it too French. I feel like it’s between English and French at the same time.
He raps in English?
No, no. But he did many collabs with foreign artists, like Dave, for example. So I think it’s a good way to introduce yourself to French music in general, rather than just niche stuff.
You talked about how you enjoy listening to Lil Baby and Gunna. Is that still in your rotation? What are you listening to now?
I had my Lil Baby era, but since a couple of years not has been much happening. There’s still a few songs [of his] I listen to. Drake is still so solid. It’s still something daily for me. And to really hype me up, honestly. I still listen a lot to of Ken Carson. I like Travis as well. That’s like my go-to artists on a weekend. Gunna all the time.
What do you play to get hyped up before you go drive?
For some reason there’s one song that really gets me before going in the car. I don’t know why this one, but “Never Recover.”
Gunna and Lil Baby.
And Drake. That is one song that, for some reason, really gets me. And it’s been in my rotation for five years now.
Have you met them?
No, never. My girlfriend’s Canadian, Drake is Canadian, so maybe one day I’d like to meet Drake.
Have you ever thought about making music?
No. I know I don’t have it in me. I don’t have a good artistic sense.
No karaoke?
I did that. It’s terrible. It’s terrifying. That was it for me.
I read something about how you don’t understand manual transmission cars.
I was young. I was like 17. Nowadays I’m good with that. But as racing drivers of our generation, we learned with two pedals only. Brake, throttle. And then you upshift with the steering wheel, with paddles. So before I had my driving test, to have my license, I never got to drive anything manual. I did do sequential gearboxes, but that was it. I didn’t grow up with that. Which is a shame.
Do you own a manual transmission car now?
I don’t actually. I have a [Porsche] GT2 RS.
There’s a whole contingent of people that believe that for it to be a true sports car, it needs to have a manual transmission.
I agree. In Paris where I live, it’s not enjoyable to have a manual car.
Because of the traffic.
But if I had to live around here [in Texas], wide open roads, I would drive something like a Ford GT40. Dream car.
The biggest album of the year so far has been Iceman. You mentioned enjoying Drake, have you listened to that album?
I did.
Good, bad?
It’s not my favorite. It’s good.
People have placed it at the top of Drake’s discography. I put it somewhere towards the middle. Take Care is my favorite Drake album.
What is that, like 2012, something like that?
2011.
2011, I was young.
What’s your favorite Drake album if you had to pick one?
Take Care. But Iceman makes it in the top five, in my opinion.
Really?
Yeah, I think it’s good. Did you like it?
I do like it. I think Take Care was a brand new thing. We’d never heard anything like that before. Completely took the game by storm. It changed the way people made music. He was a new type of artist and I feel like we’ve been in that world since then.
One thing I do for French rap that I don’t do for US rap is that French rap, I really listen to the lyrics. But when it switches to English, for me it’s all about the instrumental. So I don’t have the same opinion that you would have. If you listen to a French song, you’re not going to get the lyrics, you’re going to listen to the vibe, you’re going to hear the music. But for me, lyrics is an important part. And if you don’t get everything, then your judgment switches a little bit.
Who’s the best French rapper right now?
It’s so competitive that I don’t have one that stands out. There is a king for me because he’s been in the game for so long. His name is Booba. He’s the biggest French rapper, yes, in terms of statistics and stuff. But otherwise, I relate a lot to a group called PNL. They are two brothers and they are Algerian just like me. So I feel closer to them and what they say. So, PNL.
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