Red Bull Formula 1 team principal Laurent Mekies says Isack Hadjar‘s radio anger in Monaco was understandable given the number of issues the Frenchman faced on his way to third.
Hadjar’s drive to a first Red Bull podium was anything but a leisurely Sunday cruise. If the mental load of 78 laps around Monaco with the 2026 cars wasn’t taxing enough, the young Frenchman was subjected to various car and power unit gremlins throughout. The exact extent of his issues may not have been fully clear at the time, but the fact Hadjar was clearly dealing with various problems behind the wheel came out the way we’re accustomed to, with the 21-year-old making his displeasure known through heated radio exchanges.
When told his team was looking into the lack of power and engine braking he reported on lap 20, while under pressure from Mercedes’ George Russell, Hadjar snapped back: “Well look faster! before warning “something is going to explode”.
As he crossed the line to take a hard-earned third, which was later upheld after stewards cleared Red Bull of a red flag investigation, Hadjar could finally exhale: “Oh my god, why does it have to be so difficult!”
“Honestly, I also faced more issues than people can think during the race. It was not nice out there,” he reported afterwards. “There were a few engine issues, driveability issues, and the car was very hard to drive. The first start was very good. The second one I had no power. Final stint, I was struggling with the engine as well. But the team is very reactive on switches to get me back to it. And honestly, yeah, very draining.”
Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Alex Bierens de Haan / LAT Images via Getty Images
Commenting on Hadjar’s issues, Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies said: “We battled a number of issues on this car from quite early in the race. We had a lot less engine power and as you may imagine, that has a lot of consequences on the energy management and so on. So, he had a very, very hard time. The issues became quite big after he went through the run-off in the chicane, but he managed to survive that to P3, eventually.”
Mekies is very familiar with Hadjar’s temperament from their time together at Racing Bulls. When quizzed by Motorsport about his driver’s radio crashouts, the Frenchman said his driver’s angst was understandable given the widespread implications of his power loss.
“It’s always very difficult for the driver in the car to understand what’s going on,” Mekies explained. “In that case he could not know exactly how much engine power he was losing. The implication of that loss of ICE power on the rest of the management is massive for the way these power units are working.
“We understand the emotions, I think he has managed to keep the car alive, the team has managed to communicate back to him a number of changes to keep the car alive. As you can see it’s not a pleasant thing to do around here, to keep changing switches but nonetheless it worked. As we all gain experience I’m sure you will see the volume of the conversations will progressively go down.”
Laurent Mekies, Team Principal, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Kym Illman / Getty Images
Hadjar’s weekend had gotten off to a rotten start when he crashed at the swimming pool section in FP1, with Mekies praising how the 21-year-old responded to that early setback on a technical circuit where building up confidence is so crucial.
“The team did a fantastic job to manage to put his car back into one piece and to give him some FP2 time. He paid us back in the way he has managed to reset, in the way he has managed to find his confidence back,” Mekies said. “Not straight away in FP2, but through FP3 and ultimately to produce very strong qualifying performance.”
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