Isack Hadjar makes confession about Red Bull F1 promotion and becoming Max Verstappen's team-mate

Isack Hadjar has admitted he did have initial worries about stepping up to a Red Bull Formula 1 seat alongside Max Verstappen.

The 21-year-old Frenchman earned promotion to the Red Bull senior team after an impressive rookie F1 season at sister squad Racing Bulls. Hadjar placed 12th in the championship and scored 51 points in a first campaign that was capped off with a maiden podium at the Dutch Grand Prix, where he took a stunning third.

Hadjar took on the unenviable task of becoming four-time world champion Verstappen’s team-mate, considered by many as the toughest job in F1, but has so far avoided the drastic performance deficits his predecessors faced.

Following a promising start to his Red Bull career, Hadjar conceded he is still “pinching himself” to be driving for the senior team.

"Signing is a first step. It's a big step. But then you're like, 'OK, now I know what I have ahead of me. Now I have a path. I have a trajectory. I know it's all about delivering now. And the chances are low that you make it, but there's still a chance,'" Hadjar told F1.com.

"And when I look back on the last few years, what I've delivered, the pressure I had to be sat there today, I must say that I'm still pinching myself to realise I'm here working at one of the biggest teams on the grid is weird.”

Asked if he had any worries about becoming Verstappen’s team-mate, Hadjar replied: “Of course I did in a way, because you look at the gaps between Max’s team-mates and you are like ‘wow, this is weird’.

“But at the same time, I’m realistic, it’s a new regulation, we have the same car, if I believe I’m good, I’m good and that’s the end of the story.

Hadjar insists the external pressure doesn’t faze him because it is nothing compared to the expectations he places on himself.

"It comes from training. I would say since go-karting, I've never had a moment where I knew, 'OK, this year I have a dominant team, it's going to be easy, I'm going to go into the upper categories easily’,” he explained.

"It's always been constant pressure and I always had to prove something. So, when you get used to that since you're seven, eight, nine, 10, all the way to now, you handle this pressure a lot better.

"I must say the pressure I put on myself to satisfy myself, I would say my standards are higher than any other people that say 'OK, you need to do that, that, that'. It's stressing me out a lot less than what I'm putting on my shoulders. At the end of the day, not disappointing me is the biggest thing."