A theory has emerged explaining why Isack Hadjar was more than half a second off Max Verstappen’s pace during Friday practice.
Isack Hadjar broke into the top ten of the timesheets on his first day with Red Bull, finishing P9 in his first official outing for the team. However, he was outpaced not just by Max Verstappen but also by Racing Bulls driver Arvid Lindblad.
Hadjar finished sixth-tenths behind Verstappen, and while it may seem early to read too much into one session, there’s already a suggestion that tyre strategies could be behind the gap.
Isack Hadjar unlikely to take big risks in practice
Ralf Bach, speaking on the F1-Insider YouTube channel, noticed that Isack Hadjar was almost six-tenths slower than his teammate in the second practice session and shared a theory about why that might have been the case.
Following a crash during testing, Red Bull weren’t too pleased with Hadjar. It’s likely he’s aware of that now, and there’s talk that he may have been playing it safe rather than pushing hard in practice.
He looked like he was focused on getting through his planned workload without any drama, not looking to risk another incident so early in the weekend.
Bach explained: “Perhaps he did not risk everything. He does not want to damage any cars. People were a bit upset with him for crashing the Red Bull during testing, which was unnecessary. He is aware of that.”
“So, saying that he was holding back in Formula 1 is a bit of an exaggeration, but it may be that he was mainly focused on completing his programme and not crashing out under any circumstances.
“And of course, that doesn’t help if you have that in the back of your mind when you want to go all out, but if that was the case, then he did his job sensibly.”
Can Isack Hadjar break the Red Bull second driver curse?
Since Max Verstappen was made the number one driver at Red Bull, no one in the other seat has been able to match him.
Still, there’s a growing belief that Hadjar might be the one to finally put an end to that narrative and settle into a long-term role with the team.
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