Isack Hadjar was forced into retirement after just two laps of the Singapore Sprint, his power‑unit shutting down amid a Red Bull RB22 that had already been compromised by a fourth‑gear failure and a prior battery fault.
Pre‑race setbacks
In qualifying, a broken fourth‑gear prevented Hadjar from setting a qualifying lap, sending him out of Q1 and consigning the young Austrian to the back row of the sprint grid. A track‑limits violation in the free laps pushed him further to start from ninth.
Earlier at Sepang, a battery failure dropped the driver to fifth before the weekend’s conclusion, adding to the growing list of mechanical gremlins that have plagued the RB22’s performance.
On‑track frustrations
After the two‑lap retirement, Hadjar described the moment as “pissing me off” because he “just wants to drive” and keep the car rolling from tyre to tyre. He admitted he was uncertain about the safest place to pull off on the Turn 5 escape road, a choice that put him head‑on into the Marina Bay paddock entrance.
Hadjar later reflected that the sprint weekend offered little opportunity to fine‑tune the car, citing the single practice session and parc ferme restrictions that left him unable to react to the RB22’s handling issues.
Team dynamics
Red Bull’s overall performance in Singapore, highlighted by Max Verstappen’s victories from pole in both the sprint and the full‑race, underscored the potential of the RB22. However, Hadjar’s inability to harness that potential points to lingering reliability challenges within the team’s package.
Red Bull Racing’s media and technical teams will likely focus on restoring the power‑unit and gearbox reliability before the next race to counter the momentum Verstappen has built.
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