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Motorsport

Oleg Karpov

Who slept best last night: Isack Hadjar

Isack Hadjar Red Bull Max Verstappen F1 Red Bull Racing George Russell Yuki Tsunoda Monaco

The last Red Bull Racing Formula 1 podium delivered by someone not called Max Verstappen dated back to 21 April 2024 - when Sergio Perez finished third in Shanghai.

It was the Mexican’s fourth podium in the first five races of that year, which made it look like the Milton Keynes squad had finally got what it needed from its second driver. Checo was consistent, finishing second three times before that race in China, right behind the winning Max. A few weeks later, Red Bull offered the Mexican a new contract extension, even with Carlos Sainz available on the market as a free agent - only to see his performance drop and then completely collapse by the end of the year.

Liam Lawson took his seat - only to vacate it for Yuki Tsunoda just two races into the next season. The Japanese driver never really delivered on the promise. Even though the bar wasn’t set too high: just be consistent, score some points and avoid crashing too often. After all the merry-go-round with that second seat, the team seemingly just wanted someone who wouldn’t be a complete embarrassment in the car. Because that Red Bull second seat seemed cursed, with any soul stepping into the cockpit of the machine built around Verstappen destined for constant pain and suffering, before eventually being replaced with a fresh one - only to see the cycle repeat.

On Sunday in Monaco, Isack Hadjar made the most convincing case yet for declaring that car free from the curse. At least for the time being.

The most unusual thing about Hadjar’s season is that he actually isn’t doing anything unusual at all. He’s certainly not stealing headlines this year. There is enough drama for the F1 world to follow: the rise of Kimi Antonelli, the revival of Lewis Hamilton, the catastrophic collapse of George Russell’s title hopes. Even the Frenchman’s first Red Bull podium is by far not the most exciting story of the weekend.

The reason is, perhaps, very simple: Hadjar is doing exactly what you’d expect from a young talented driver going through his first season with a top team and a star team-mate next to him in the garage.

For most of the opening stint, Hadjar had to defend against George Russell while managing an engine issue (Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images)

There are plenty of lows, like the Miami crash - followed by Hadjar’s classic emotional explosion and some steering-wheel banging - but what sets him apart from his predecessors is that he’s able to recover and still deliver the highs.

In the long list of excuses in the F1 drivers’ vocabulary, the one about “putting the weekend together” is among those used the most. A struggling driver would point to a setback - often a legitimate one, too - as a pivotal element of a weekend that ended in another low. Those occupying that second Red Bull car would talk about how a wrong setup direction on Friday made the car’s balance worse - or something similar. For a solid few months last year, following his Imola crash, Tsunoda was trying to find some comfort in the fact he wasn’t driving a car of the same spec as Verstappen - only to demonstrate almost no improvement when the new parts finally arrived.

What was convincing about Hadjar’s Monaco weekend was the way he recovered after his FP1 accident. You’d often hear drivers talking about confidence - and it’s on the streets of Monte Carlo where it’s undoubtedly needed most. The three practice sessions are more often than not about building that confidence first - and everything else car-related second. Hadjar threw away valuable practice time by allowing his car to snap on the exit of the swimming pool section - and his confidence along with it.

It would’ve probably been the start of a downward spiral for some. But Hadjar managed to get it back under control.

“I think I missed more than half a session,” he said after qualifying, when asked whether he still felt the Friday crash affected his performance. “In FP2 the car was repaired and my confidence was to rebuilt. It was just a horrific day. But I made the most of FP3 this morning and honestly… [it was a] damage limitation [in qualifying].

“So I did well.”

Qualifying fifth would certainly count as a decent Saturday even without that Friday setback - but he still, as usual, wasn’t too happy with himself.

Isack Hadjar's crash on Friday (Photo by: Gabriel Bouys / AFP / Getty Images)

And that’s another thing that is different with Hadjar. He almost never reaches for that very vocabulary of excuses. His sharp and usually very short responses definitely tell you something about his approach. He’d demolish himself with brutal honesty on a bad day - and he won’t get too excited after a good one either. “I did well” is more than enough. By Hadjar’s standards, this is just a minimum requirement.

On Sunday, he certainly got a few presents from direct competitors - but it was more than just about being in the right place at the right time. Hadjar had to survive his Monaco race while dealing with a number of issues.

“He got a big setback in FP1 when he crashed the car,” Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies said after the race. “The team did a fantastic job to manage to put his car back into one piece and to give him some FP2 time. I don't know if you saw at the very beginning of FP2 - a few minutes before - you had Max in the car and ready to go. And then all the mechanics had gone to try to gain time with Isack in the few minutes they had before Max had to go out. So, it was a massive effort.

“Honestly, he paid us back in the way he has managed to reset, in the way he has managed to find his confidence back. Not straight away in FP2, but through FP3 and ultimately to produce a very strong qualifying performance. So, that was until today.

“And today, it was not trouble-free either. We battled a number of issues on this car from quite early in the race. I don't remember exactly when, but 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 forth and so on. So, brake balance, blah, blah, blah. He had a very, very hard time. The issues became quite big after he went through the run-off, I think, in the chicane. But he managed to survive that to P3, eventually.”

Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing (Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images)

Speaking to Sky post-race, Hadjar himself said he “faced more issues than people can think during the race” - but perhaps his usually colourful radio messages gave the world audience enough of a hint.

With Hadjar being the way he is, he’s probably still not fully satisfied with his weekend - despite it delivering not only his first podium with his new team, but also the first for Red Bull’s “cursed” second car in two years. Because in the end, third place for a team that has won god knows how many championships (and now apparently has the best engine on the grid) is not something to celebrate. It’s just the way it should be.