– The Miami Grand Prix has shifted the internal balance of power at Red Bull: While Max Verstappen improved his performance compared to the first races of the season and came closer to his top form again, Isack Hadjar experienced a weekend that was a test of endurance both sportingly and mentally.
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The 21-year-old Frenchman was already clearly behind his established teammate on Friday, was disqualified on Saturday due to a team error, and ended up in the wall after just a few laps in the race on Sunday following his own driving mistake.
“He really took a full hit. He had to cope with that first,” says expert Ralf Schumacher in the current Sky podcast Backstage Boxengasse. “He’s such a little HB figure, as they say in Germany.”
Because after his early accident on Sunday, Hadjar reacted visibly upset, wildly hitting his steering wheel and seemed hardly able to calm down. “You could see how he cursed himself. So he was under full tension all weekend and didn’t understand it at all.”
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Even more serious than the accident itself could be the significant gap to Max Verstappen: In the sprint qualifying on Friday, the Frenchman was about a second slower than his teammate, and in qualifying on Saturday still eight tenths of a second behind.
“I think in his career he has never been so far behind his teammate and has never been beaten so bitterly,” says Schumacher. “And that is of course something he has to come to terms with. Max Verstappen was sometimes a second or more faster. So it was a bitter weekend for Hadjar.”
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For the young Red Bull driver, the pressure is growing not to join the ranks of drivers who have failed alongside Verstappen in the long term. “Yes, the danger definitely exists, because of course everything that will come in upgrades now will be controlled or decided by Max Verstappen,” says the expert.
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“Accordingly, I assume that it will go more in his direction, also regarding drivability.” In Miami, Verstappen already made a statement when he surprisingly qualified in second place and narrowly missed pole position.
Schumacher: Changes favor Verstappen
“From my point of view, Max Verstappen has now kind of returned,” Schumacher assesses the current development in the course of the rule adjustments. “All these changes, especially regarding the battery, have led to the cars being able to enter corners significantly faster again, or rather having to, and braking later.”
This driving style suits the Red Bull driver better. “And I could also imagine that this fine-tuning of when, how, and where a battery is used, how many kilojoules are added, and so on, that Formula 1 will sit down again, evaluate it, and further perfect it, because that really was a step in the right direction.”
“That will all work in his favor,” believes the Sky expert, who therefore sees Verstappen clearly advantaged over his teammate in the upcoming races. And “what you also have to credit Red Bull for: They have now made a drivable car for him.”
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“At the beginning he made so many mistakes because the car was just stubborn,” Schumacher recalls the season opener in Melbourne. “So even there: All upgrades seem to have worked.” In plain language: The air is getting thinner for Hadjar if he does not want to suffer the same fate as previous Verstappen teammates …
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