Free Practice 1
Position: 8th
Gap to leader: +1.449s
Gap to Verstappen: +0.717s
Isack Hadjar felt uncomfortable from the get-go in the sole practice session of the sprint Singapore weekend. Shortly after FP1 began, the Frenchman complained that his Red Bull bottomed too much, especially in braking zones, and that his throttle pedal was slippery.
Performance was lacking, as shown by his mammoth deficit both to pacesetter George Russell and to team-mate Max Verstappen, but at least he wasn’t being struck by reliability issues – yet.
Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: James Sutton / LAT Images via Getty Images
Sprint qualifying
Position: 9th
No lap time in Q3
Hadjar’s lack of speed was confirmed in the first competitive session of the weekend. He was outpaced by Verstappen by 0.705s in SQ1 and 0.246s in SQ2, before his sole SQ3 time was deleted over a track-limit breach – but on that lap he was 0.892s slower than his team-mate anyway, so that only cost him one position.
“I don’t know,” a puzzled Hadjar pondered. “It’s just, what seemed like a good start of the day turned into a very poor performance. I felt very comfortable straight away in FP1, but on the hard compound, and that was it, really.
“I never got to have a good lap, really. I’m just fighting with the car. I had engine issues on the last run. I was just struggling. I don’t know, it’s just weird.”
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images
Sprint race
Position: DNF
Hadjar maintained ninth position at the start of a wet sprint, but he was overtaken by Pierre Gasly and Oliver Bearman on lap one, then was taken out of the race by a power unit failure on lap three.
“I didn’t really have power at the start, it sounded very bad, then I had to retire the car. Very straightforward,” is how the Red Bull driver summed his race up.
Even the RB22’s recovery went wrong: “My car caught fire and stuff – just a disaster.”
Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
Qualifying
Position: Not classified (no lap time)
If Hadjar was hoping for a better time in the main qualifying session, he was swiftly disappointed.
The 22-year-old stopped on track with what he subsequently described as a ‘broken fourth gear’, managed to restart his car and pitted. His second attempt went no better; he regretfully returned to the pitlane and did not emerge back out.
“When you have an issue in quali, in the sprint, and you have another issue in the other qualifying… I don’t know, I’m not an engineer, but it’s bad momentum mechanically speaking,” Hadjar rued.
“It’s pissing me off because I just want to drive. I just want to get to it and go new tyre after new tyre, and now I don’t get to do that.
“I’m just really, really pissed off.”
Hadjar’s frustration was compounded by marshals calling him to the weighbridge as he was facing those technical issues.
“I’m like, come on, I’m barely managing to keep it rolling, and then you ask me to turn off the engine, to turn it back on – using the clutch, pulling first gear, like, it’s just not nice,” he said. “It’s just really annoying.”
Hence Hadjar’s conclusion: “I could have stayed back in Paris, it would have been the same.”
Laurent Mekies, Red Bull Racing Team Principal, Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Mark Thompson / Getty Images
Race
Position: 10th
Gap to winner: 1m30.862s
Gap to Verstappen: 1m30.862s
After completing just five laps – at a slow pace – on Saturday, Hadjar’s Sunday was likely to go better, and it did.
Starting from the pitlane, the Red Bull racer made tentative but steady progress. He gained two places on lap one before performing a number of overtakes – with the decisive one for the final point coming on lap 58, against Pierre Gasly.
Hadjar again reported “engine issues” after the race – “the usual”, he sarcastically commented – but he was slightly less downbeat than before.
“At some point I said, ‘This is a train, I’m never going to finish in the top 10’,” he related. “On that soft tyre I knew I had good pace to unlock, but I didn’t think I would be that fast.
“I’m quite happy about that, but I would have liked to make use of that pace to fight for a win.
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing, Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Joe Portlock / Getty Images
He added: “Now, since Malaysia, I’m just desperate to have a car that’s working a bit better, on my side, to fight for a win, because at the moment it’s not possible to fight. So now we need to reset, understand what happened since Sunday in Malaysia, to make sure we come back in Austin and fight for podiums.”
This was undeniably the conclusion of a tough weekend for Hadjar, but when this was suggested to him, he keenly shifted the focus to his squad’s effort.
“It was definitely not very challenging, you know, it was challenging for my mechanics,” he remarked. “They suffered quite a lot for just one point. It’s definitely their weekend, and they deserve better, so we’ll try again.”
Additional reporting by Jake Boxall-Legge
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