Key Highlights:
- Red Bull Racing driver Isack Hadjar endured a nightmare run of mechanical breakdowns throughout the Singapore sprint weekend, including a sprint race DNF and failing to set a time in qualifying.
- Despite starting from the pitlane on Sunday, Hadjar fought through the field to secure a 10th-place finish and salvage a single championship point.
- The French driver expressed acute frustration over persistent powertrain and gearbox troubles, urging the team to diagnose and reset issues ahead of the United States Grand Prix in Austin.
Technical Woes Disrupt Hadjar’s Sprint Weekend in Singapore
Isack Hadjar experienced a turbulent Singapore Grand Prix weekend dominated by setup complaints, pace deficits, and recurring mechanical setbacks in his Red Bull machinery. The French driver struggled to find comfort during the weekend’s sole practice session, fighting excessive bottoming in the braking zones and a slippery throttle pedal. Hadjar finished Free Practice 1 in eighth place, trailing session pacesetter George Russell by 1.449 seconds and finishing 0.717 seconds adrift of his Red Bull Racing team-mate Max Verstappen.
The pace deficit carried directly into sprint qualifying, where Hadjar lined up ninth after having his sole SQ3 attempt deleted for exceeding track limits. Even before the deletion, Hadjar sat 0.892 seconds off Verstappen’s benchmark. Reflecting on the sudden decline in form after the opening running, the 22-year-old was left searching for answers.
“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.”
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Sprint DNF and Qualifying Stoppage Deepen Frustrations
Matters deteriorated rapidly during Saturday’s wet sprint race. Starting from ninth, Hadjar lost ground immediately to Pierre Gasly and Oliver Bearman before an engine failure forced his retirement on lap three. The stoppage added insult to injury as his RB22 suffered further damage during recovery.
“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.”
Hadjar entered Grand Prix qualifying hoping to turn his fortunes around, only to encounter severe mechanical issues almost immediately. After coming to a halt out on track with what he noted was a broken fourth gear, he managed to limp back to the pitlane. A subsequent attempt yielded no progress, leaving him unclassified without a recorded lap time.
“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 also expressed irritation after being flagged for the weighbridge while trying to keep his wounded car functioning. “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.”
The cumulative disruptions led Hadjar to observe: “I could have stayed back in Paris, it would have been the same.”
Sunday Fightback to the Points From the Pitlane
Forced to start the Grand Prix from the pitlane following his disastrous qualifying, Hadjar staged an impressive recovery drive. He gained two spots on the opening lap and steadily advanced through the order, eventually executing a late-race overtake on Pierre Gasly on lap 58 to grab 10th position and salvage a single point. He finished 1m30.862s behind the race winner and Verstappen.
Despite experiencing lingering powertrain issues during the grand prix—which he sarcastically noted as “the usual”—the young racer took solace in his raw race pace on softer rubber.
“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.
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.”
Hadjar made sure to credit the Red Bull garage crew, led on the pit wall by Team Principal Laurent Mekies, for their tireless work amid the persistent setbacks. “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.”
Why This Matters
The severe reliability issues encountered on Hadjar’s side of the garage highlight vital development hurdles for Red Bull Racing as the season progresses. With the team fielding competitive machinery capable of fighting at the front in the hands of Max Verstappen, recurring power unit and transmission failures severely hamper Hadjar’s ability to extract consistent performance and support the team’s standing. Resolving the mechanical gremlins originating since Malaysia will be essential for Red Bull ahead of the upcoming United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, where Hadjar aims to challenge for podium positions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where did Isack Hadjar finish the Singapore Grand Prix?
After starting from the pitlane due to an unclassified qualifying result, Isack Hadjar drove through the field to finish 10th, securing the final point on lap 58 with an overtake on Pierre Gasly.
What mechanical problems did Hadjar face throughout the event?
Hadjar suffered multiple setbacks across the weekend, including bottoming and throttle issues in practice, engine issues in sprint qualifying, a terminal power unit failure and subsequent fire in the sprint race, a broken fourth gear during Grand Prix qualifying, and recurring engine issues in Sunday’s main race.
What are Hadjar’s expectations for the next round in Austin?
Hadjar indicated that the team needs to reset and understand the root causes of the technical issues that have persisted since Malaysia, stating his goal to return with a more reliable car capable of fighting for podiums in Austin.
