Red Bull showed a notable improvement in starts at the Mexican Grand Prix, but Isack Hadjar still isn’t certain the team can repeat that level of performance in Interlagos. The French driver highlighted the work done since Austin, yet underlined that the squad still needs to understand what allowed the progress to maintain this pattern across the upcoming races.
Starts have been a recurring issue for Red Bull this season. The irregularity of the clutch caused Hadjar and Max Verstappen to lose ground within the first meters at several rounds. In Austin, the impact was felt even more: despite starting from third, he dropped back through the pack after a chaotic clutch release.
In Mexico, however, both cars delivered far better starts. The team did not need to adjust hardware ahead of the race, and Verstappen took advantage of the clean launch to move from fifth and win the race.
Despite the improvement, Hadjar prefers to keep his feet on the ground. He says the work done since Austin paid off, but now Red Bull needs to figure out how to repeat the performance: “I would be lying if I said yes, because, I mean, I also don’t want to claim it was a one-off, since we worked hard on this since Austin, and then we managed in Mexico. So, a lot of hard work. Now the objective is to replicate that, understand why it worked so well, and keep it that way until the end of the year. And next year, to take an even bigger step.”
The Frenchman has also had to deal with issues that prevented stronger results in recent rounds. While Verstappen managed to win with the RB22, Hadjar struggled to convert the car’s pace into solid results. In Singapore, a gearbox fault disrupted his race. In Malaysia, a battery problem at the end deprived him of a likely podium.
The string of misfortunes has been bothering the driver, who acknowledged the frustration of not being able to fight for a top-five spot in the latest rounds, with Malaysia as the exception.
“That’s what makes it even more frustrating for me now. In the latest races, I couldn’t even be in the top five. I mean, apart from Malaysia, something always happened on Sunday.”
“But, yes, it will click. It’s just a matter of time, and from my side, I think the pace has been decent. So I just want to keep pushing, and here anything can happen with the conditions, so stay very, very alert.”
