F1 star Isack Hadjar sounds the alarm: “Huge step backwards” at the Austin opener

At the start of the 18th race weekend of the season in Austin, Isack Hadjar was significantly slower than his team-mate Max Verstappen. Whilst the four-time world champion was second-fastest in the first practice session and finished the second session with the third-fastest lap, the Frenchman went in the wrong direction with his set-up.

He finished the first hour of free practice in 14th place on the timesheet, 1.738 seconds off the fastest time set by Ferrari star Charles Leclerc. The gap to his team-mate was also significant, at more than 1.6 seconds. In the second practice session, he managed to reduce this gap – after 24 laps he was in ninth place, still 1.120 seconds off the day’s fastest time set by Leclerc.

Nevertheless, he was anything but happy when he stepped in front of the TV cameras after getting out of the car to give his initial assessment. “The first practice session was okay, but in the second session it was only still manageable on the medium tyres. We’d changed the car, and on the soft tyres it just didn’t work for me at all.”

New problems following adjustments ahead of the second practice session

“It was very, very difficult to drive,” complained the 22-year-old. “That’s why we need to find a way to turn things round again before qualifying. We need to sit down and see what we can do, because we’ve taken a huge step backwards,” he said bluntly.

“I thought we were heading in the right direction with the set-up adjustments, but the changes only led to further problems. It’s hard to understand,” Hadjar admitted when asked, but he also consoled himself: “We can certainly make a few more improvements to the car’s balance, which should help us. And that’s what Fridays are for – so you can try out different things and find the right approach.”

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