Red Bull Formula 1 driver Isack Hadjar believes he is "very, very lucky" to be partnered with four-time champion Max Verstappen, stating he is facing the Dutchman at the "prime of the prime" of his career.
Hadjar, who recently secured a contract extension to remain at the Milton Keynes outfit through the 2027 season, has been tasked with the notoriously difficult role of driving alongside Verstappen.
Speaking on Formula 1's Beyond The Grid podcast, the 22-year-old detailed the reality of sharing garage space with Verstappen.
"I know I'm probably facing the prime of the prime of the level you can achieve in Formula 1, and he's just next to me in the garage," Hadjar explained. "So to experience this at my age, this early in my career, I'm one very, very lucky guy. So just for that, I'm thankful, and it's great."
He added: "But I love the challenge. I love going into every session knowing that he's going to set a benchmark that I need to match and I need to overcome. It's just exciting. It changes everything I've had my whole career."
While Hadjar feels his single-lap pace compares favourably, he admitted that Verstappen's race-day execution remains unparalleled.
"I would say it's exactly what I expected Max Verstappen to be on the track. I had an idea of how good he was, and it translates really well," he continued.
Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing
"What I have in my mind that I want to achieve on track, he does it. But there's always a difference between what you're aiming to do and what you actually deliver.
"There's always a little gap sometimes, but he's constant. He doesn't really have low moments. He makes no mistakes. He's always at the right time, the right place as well. He creates his own luck a bit.
"Let's say on a track, you have like 15 corners and maybe there's one corner you master, or two, three, four, five corners, you do really, really well. But he matches you there and then on the others, he keeps that same level.
"And then over the lap, he makes the lap time difference. I wouldn't say I look at the data and I'm like, 'I can't reproduce this'. It's how often he does it. That makes the big difference at the end. He has no peak. It's flat. It's up there, but it's flat. It's what makes him such a tough driver."
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