Mekies Apologises To Hadjar: “We Owe Him One”

For Isack Hadjar, the Singapore Grand Prix weekend turned out to be one to forget, with a nightmare series of technical issues affecting almost every session. Even on race day things did not go perfectly to plan, but he put in a storming charge from the pit lane to finish 10th. After the race, Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies apologised for denying Hadjar the chance to show his speed, and said the team owes him one.

From a strong run to a tough weekend

Hadjar arrived at the final race of the triple-header on the back of his superb drive to third in Azerbaijan. In Malaysia, a late power unit glitch cost him another potential podium and dropped him to fifth.

Friday and Saturday: problem after problem

In Singapore, things started to go wrong in Friday’s Sprint Qualifying when he again had power unit issues and had to settle for ninth. Saturday proved even worse: his power unit failed on the third lap of the Sprint. A great effort from the Red Bull crew saw him switch to previously used elements for qualifying. From the start of the session, however, he suffered a gearbox problem, losing fourth gear and unable to set a flying lap. After he parked up, the car was doused with extinguishant.

Parc ferme broken, pit lane start

With a lot of work to do, the team decided to break parc ferme, add a new power unit to the pool and start from the pit lane. At the start he first lost out to fellow pit lane starter Fernando Alonso as power unit issues struck again, but he then found the pace and moved up the field. He finished 10th, around six seconds behind George Russell, who had started from 19th on the grid.

Hadjar: I had the pace

After the race, Hadjar said it was good considering everything that had happened. He said he had definitely good pace and would have liked to use it to fight for a win. At one point, he said, he thought he was stuck in a train and would never finish in the top 10, but on the soft tyre he knew there was good pace to unlock, though he did not expect to be that fast. He said his mechanics suffered a lot for just one point, that the weekend was theirs, and that they deserve better. After Saturday’s qualifying he had called the day a “disaster” and said he could have stayed back in Paris and it would have been the same.

Mekies: We owe him one

Mekies said the team had a horrific weekend on Hadjar’s side of the garage. He said Red Bull basically did not give Hadjar a chance to do any competitive laps before Sunday’s race, with a number of mechanical issues: some on the power unit, some on the gearbox and other glitches. He said Verstappen’s crew also helped, with mechanics under the car changing massive components all weekend and even on race morning in parc ferme, which is not what you want on the last of a triple-header in hot and humid weather. He congratulated the crew, saying he had never seen such an incredible turnaround and that they delivered a faultless race car on Sunday.

Mekies said that even starting last and spending 90% of the race in traffic, Hadjar still showed very strong pace, which probably confirmed he would have been at the sharp end. He admitted the fault lay with the team.

Eyes on Austin

Verstappen’s domination of the Singapore weekend, with two poles and two wins, showed how competitive the RB22 is at the moment. Hadjar says he has been desperate since Malaysia for a car that works better on his side, because at the moment it is not possible to fight for wins. He wants to understand what has happened since Malaysia and return to Austin to fight for podiums.