Verstappen/Hadjar (Red Bull Racing): How Laurent Mekies refused team orders

Isack Hadjar enjoyed a brilliant weekend on his return to Formula 1: fourth on the grid at the Baku City Circuit, then third behind George Russell and Max Verstappen in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

At times, Hadjar’s car grew larger and larger in Verstappen’s rear-view mirror, and the experienced Dutchman was occasionally forced to drive on the inside line to keep the pesky Frenchman at bay.

Naturally, this led some spectators to ask: why didn’t the Red Bull Racing command centre intervene? After all, Hadjar, on his soft Pirelli tyres, was clearly faster at this stage of the Grand Prix than Verstappen, who was ahead of him on medium tyres.

RBR team principal Laurent Mekies: “We looked at all possible scenarios and then decided to keep the cars in their positions. Both drivers behaved very disciplined in doing so. A big shout-out also to Isack, who drove very cleverly to ensure we achieved the best team result.”

“We felt that this formation offered the best chance of putting pressure on Piastri and Russell ahead of us. Of course, everyone expects the safety car to come out at some point. But there’s no guarantee of that.”

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“Max was having problems with the medium tyres at that point, and we knew he’d have a better chance on the softs. Ultimately, that’s exactly how it played out; in the end, he missed out on victory against Russell by just under two tenths of a second.”