Red Bull junior Isack Hadjar felt his latest Formula 1 practice run for the team at Yas Marina was “competitive”.
He drove Max Verstappen’s car in today’s first practice session. After recovering from a spin early on, Hadjar covered 22 laps and lapped within four tenths of a second of Sergio Perez in the team’s other car.Amid rumours Hadjar may be promoted to Red Bull’s second F1 team next year, the 20-year-old said he gave a good account of himself.
“It was intense,” he told the official F1 channel. “I’ve done much more laps than usual.
“It was a great run plan, honestly I really enjoyed the session. I got plenty of laps. It didn’t start really well for me, but I improved quite rapidly and I was happy with the long run performance. And I was competitive as well in the short run. So it was not bad.”
It was Hadjar’s second outing of the season in the RB20 after taking over Perez’s car at Silverstone in the summer. He said he is yet to fully push the limits while behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car despite his previous experience.
“It was my fourth time in an F1 car today,” he said. “I’ve done four FP1 sessions, so I’m still new to it. I haven’t done any private tests, so every time I jump in, I feel like it’s the first time.
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“Everything comes at you so fast. I still didn’t explore all the limits of the car, so just on feeling, I can learn a lot still.”
Asked after the end of the day about the difference between the two categories, Hadjar said “they’re worlds apart.”
“When I went back to the F2 car, it felt just super-slow. Everything comes at you slowly, but at the same time it’s incredibly physical without power steering.
“So I had to get back to it and get used to it, which was really tough. They are 15 seconds a lap slower – it’s huge.”
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Aquila_GD
6th December 2024, 17:39
So Perez is that fast
Doh
7th December 2024, 11:33
Does anyone agree with me?
I have a feeling max might be leaving F1 this weekend or this month
Le Jimster (@lejimster82)
6th December 2024, 19:10
He’s a decent driver the main issue I have with this guy is his team radio. He whines and screams often on the radio, he makes Tsunoda look like a Zen master by comparison… And it didn’t take him long to do that in FP1 and even if it was a pretty bad block by another rookie he will need to work on that if he gets promoted to F1.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
6th December 2024, 20:08
would have been nice had the seating position/steering been fitted better for him, and the williams driver not been impeding, but not a terrible practice, better than the last one.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
6th December 2024, 21:00
He was very mouthy over the radio.
He was complaining about everyone else after only a few laps.
Prime target for Netflix.
Sham (@sham)
6th December 2024, 22:16
Fixed that for you. It seems Red Bull thrives on entitlement.
SPArtacus
7th December 2024, 3:57
This is nothing new. He’s famous for his less than ideal character. He’s the last thing we need in F1.
fawkes
7th December 2024, 11:40
This is the trademark of the red bull academy/team haha
I’ve noticed this watching the F2 season in more detail this year. Speaking of it, let’s go, Bortoletto!
An Sionnach
6th December 2024, 22:40
Would be nice to put everyone in that Red Bull and see what they can do. Sergio’s performances will always be a question mark to me. How much of it is the car?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
7th December 2024, 0:52
I think you really need to be a good driver to perform at red bull: other than verstappen you’d need norris, piastri, sainz, leclerc, alonso, hamilton, russell.
SPArtacus
7th December 2024, 4:00
I was super impressed by how fast Rio Hirakawa got up to a competitive time at the of 36. Unlike the other drivers, he had almost no prep and only got to run for a quarter of the session.
SPArtacus
7th December 2024, 4:24
Ryo* (thanks autocorrect)
Doh
7th December 2024, 11:31
Super formula cars might be the closest to F1. They’re pretty light and very notably nimble. An underrated series but maybe not surprising since it’s regional. I think at some point they were either on par with F1 lap times or on par with corner speeds in certain types of corners
SPArtacus
7th December 2024, 12:20
Indeed. The Super Formula cars are wildly fast. I’d love to go see a race next time I’m there.