Hadjar admits mistake in Russell battle: I shouldn’t have trusted him
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Isack Hadjar continues to impress in his first season with Red Bull. However, results have slipped through the young Frenchman’s fingers in recent race weekends. He has had the pace and performance, but somehow it has come to nothing in the races each time. Mexico was no exception, with Hadjar losing out after a collision with George Russell.
The British driver’s engine let him down again on the approach to the first corner, leaving him engulfed by the pack. That dropped him into a battle with Hadjar, who had started seventh and was making progress. On the approach to Turn 6, Isack was fifth, but George put his front axle alongside the Red Bull’s rear wheel and the resulting contact sent the Frenchman to the back.
“It’s a shame,” Hadjar said after the race. “I honestly did not expect George to stick a wheel up Turn 6, because the corner was completely mine. I was aware of him, and I shouldn’t have trusted him in the end, but it happens. Clearly, it’s a shame, it’s completely ruined my race.”
“To me, honestly, it’s my fault if that happened today, the lap-one incident. If I had done a better job yesterday, I wouldn’t be starting seventh, maybe we are fighting for better than a podium and we don’t meet George on the way. These things happen, but it’s better to maximise your chance at the front. I should have done a better job,” the Frenchman said ruefully.
His assessment may sound overly harsh. After a penalty, his team-mate Max Verstappen also started “only” fifth. Isack was two tenths slower than his team-mate on Saturday, a solid result.
Hadjar could recover no higher than 12th after dropping to the back on the opening lap. However, there was good news after the race in the form of penalties for Piastri, Colapinto and Gasly, which ultimately promoted Isack to ninth and into the points. “Pace on the medium on the first stint, any time I had free air, was good,” he said. “When we pitted for the soft, I only did two laps [before the safety car and red flag], but I felt super quick,” the disappointed Paris-born driver said.
“During that lap one, I was like ‘OK, I have a shot for the podium’, and then it was finished,” Hadjar added.
Mexico is one of the worst circuits for incidents like this. Overtaking has never been easy here, but this year, with these power unit settings, it was almost impossible. “It’s just a train of cars and there’s no way to really overtake. I really struggled. I even had a great fight with Checo. He was very late on the brakes in the straight, I wasn’t really catching up. It was terribly hard,” Hadjar lamented.
“In the end, it’s not like Mexico used to be a track where you could overtake [previously]. With the temperatures, the altitude, everything is on fire once you’re following someone,” he added.
