Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar labelled his Bahrain Grand Prix performance in Malaysia as a “joke” after a confusing start and a noticeable loss of pace that cost him a podium.
Start Amid Penalty and Gravel
Locked into eighth place by an engine penalty, Hadjar’s opening moments were marred by a brief slip through the gravel on the formation lap under damp conditions.
The wet track and delayed racing start, caused by software glitches, set the scene for a fight for position early in the 30‑lap sprint.
Race Momentum Through Intermediates
Capitalising on intermediate tyres, he vaulted past Liam Lawson for fourth on lap six and retained that placement against pressure from Lewis Hamilton during the late‑race stages.
When George Russell retired on lap 50, Hadjar found himself third on the track, ready for a podium before the final safety‑car sweep‑up.
Percussion on the Podium and Technical Hurdles
In the four laps that followed, Ferraris overpowered him and he dropped to fifth, trailing Hamilton by almost four seconds.
“No pace,” he complained, adding that the car was “horrible to drive” and that a battery short on the first two restart laps left him unable to defend on the straights.
Hadjar noted that the grip was inconsistent, feeling as though he was stuck on the same tyre compound throughout the race, a situation he described as a joke.
He also said that the main issue lay with chassis performance rather than the power unit, and that the vehicle’s reliability had been fine during the week.
“The whole weekend I was pretty fast, so we need to fix the issue and come back in Singapore and do better,” he added.
Constructor Impact and Forward Look
Red Bull secured its first win of the season when Max Verstappen took the victory, with Hadjar’s 10 points boosting the team’s total to 35.
These 35 points narrowed the Constructors’ gap to McLaren from 76 to 18 over the last two rounds, keeping Red Bull in serious contention for third place.
Hadjar expressed mixed feelings, happy for his teammates but acknowledging a personal “disaster” for the day, as he said, “I’m happy for the boys, but it’s a disaster for me.”
Red Bull now faces Singapore, where the team aims to address the grip issue before the next race in the calendar.
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