- Isack Hadjar’s Monaco podium came with a car that was barely holding together.
- Hamilton matched Senna’s record of eight Monaco podiums on the same day.
- Hadjar crossed the line fourth, but Gasly’s two penalties promoted him to third.
Isack Hadjar once believed sharing a podium with Lewis Hamilton was the kind of thing that simply would not happen to him. On Sunday in Monaco, it did.
The 21-year-old Red Bull driver finished third at the Monaco Grand Prix, standing alongside the seven-time world champion he had watched dominate the sport since childhood.
Speaking to Canal+ after the race, Hadjar explained why the moment carried such personal weight.
“Honestly, when I was in karting, and I saw him dominating every race, I thought that being on the podium with him one day would be impossible,” he said. He added that he had assumed Hamilton would retire before he ever reached Formula 1.
That feeling made sense given the timeline. Hamilton debuted in 2007, when Hadjar was a toddler. By the time the Frenchman was climbing the karting ladder, Hamilton had already won multiple world championships.
A childhood belief that did not survive Monte Carlo
Hadjar did not hide his admiration in the post-race press conference.
“I thought he’d be gone before I even got there, and he’s still at the top at his age,” he said. “It’s so impressive. I am so proud to be alongside him.”
It was Hadjar’s second career podium. His first came at Zandvoort in 2025, when he drove for Racing Bulls and completed a clean run to the rostrum. Monaco felt different to him.
He described the Zandvoort result as something earned with the machinery working in his favour. The Monaco podium, he said, came despite it.
A podium dragged from a dying car
Hadjar’s afternoon in Monaco was not a straightforward drive. He told reporters his car developed serious drivability problems within the opening 15 laps, leaving him fighting an unreliable machine around the most unforgiving circuit on the calendar.
“Within the first 10, 15 laps, I started having massive drivability issues,” he said. He explained that Monaco offers no room to manage a struggling car, because every corner demands full commitment.
The weekend had already tested him before Sunday. He crashed during opening practice on Friday and lost confidence in the car. He rebuilt enough form to qualify near the front, then held his position through the race despite being down on power for much of it.
How the result was decided, and nearly undone
Hadjar did not cross the line in third. He finished fourth on the road.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who had finished ahead of him, received two separate five-second penalties for pit-lane speeding. Those penalties dropped Gasly down the order and promoted Hadjar to the podium.
The result was not immediately safe. Stewards called Red Bull in over work carried out on Hadjar’s car during a late red-flag stoppage, which came after the track surface broke up near the final corner.
The team had begun preparing to change components but stopped before doing so. Because the car returned to the race in the same condition, the stewards took no further action.
A separate query about a safety car was also dismissed. Hadjar’s third place stood. Elsewhere, Max Verstappen retired on the opening lap, and George Russell finished outside the points after a penalty mix-up, leaving Hadjar to recover what he could of Red Bull’s weekend on his own.
Hamilton returns the admiration
Hamilton had his own stewards’ hearing on Sunday, disputing a pit-lane speeding penalty by arguing he had followed the same line he and others had used for years. He also equalled Ayrton Senna’s record of eight Monaco podiums with the result.
In the press conference, Hamilton reflected on standing alongside two of the youngest drivers in the field. He joked that his own age exceeded the combined ages of Hadjar and race winner Kimi Antonelli.
He then said more seriously that sharing the rostrum with them reminded him of his own debut season in 2007, and called it a real privilege.
Hadjar has previously said that receiving a message from Hamilton as a child made him dream. For the French driver, the podium he once thought out of reach is now one he gets to keep.
