(Motorsport-Total.com) – After Isack Hadjar had made an impressive debut at Red Bull and competed on equal terms with teammate Max Verstappen in the first three races of the season, the 21-year-old Frenchman with Algerian roots was brought back down to earth for the first time in Miami.
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Already in the sprint qualifying on Friday, there was a gap of almost a second to the four-time Formula 1 world champion, and also in the sprint and the subsequent qualifying on Saturday, the Red Bull rookie was unable to significantly reduce the deficit to his Dutch teammate.
To make matters worse, there was a disqualification because the so-called floor boards (“Floor Bib”) on his RB22 protruded two millimeters too far. The comeback in the race, which Hadjar had to start from the pit lane, ended early: after a few laps, he ended up in the concrete wall due to a driving error.
Isack Hadjar admits: “This is new to me”
“I am really pissed off,” the 21-year-old said clearly after his retirement. “I was too impatient and too excited to make these maneuvers and ruined myself with it. It was simply too easy to overtake, and I should have been more careful. There was no point in driving at the limit in this corner.”
“For the first time, I have such big problems with my pace,” Hadjar admits to Sky UK. “This is new to me, and I really have to push myself because I don’t want to experience a second weekend like this.” However, his team does not believe that the Frenchman will be permanently affected by this setback.
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“I don’t think we should worry about that,” explains Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies. “We had a difficult weekend. That certainly didn’t improve our performance. Technically and rhythm-wise, he hasn’t found the right rhythm yet.”
Mekies convinced: Hadjar “would have been strong in the race”
“I think he would have been strong in the race, and for the little he was able to show, it was strong as well.” At the time of the accident, which happened in the fifth lap of the race, Hadjar had already gained seven positions and was in 15th place.
“I don’t think we are worried,” Mekies emphasizes again and also takes the team into responsibility: “We certainly didn’t have a smooth weekend, and we didn’t help him either by having to start him from the back of the field after our mistake regarding the legality of the car.”
“So no, no worries,” the Red Bull team principal classifies the weak weekend as a slip-up. “It wasn’t a smooth weekend, but everything indicates that we will have the right speed again in Montreal.”