Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies is delighted with the progress Isack Hadjar is making with the team. The French-Algerian driver is in a Red Bull car for the first time this year, and at Silverstone became the first teammate of the Dutchman to qualify better for the British race. According to Mekies, Hadjar’s progress is partly due to Verstappen himself: ‘He learns a lot from Max’.
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While Max Verstappen saw his British Grand Prix weekend end in a dramatic way, teammate Isack Hadjar was still able to score valuable points for Red Bull with his fifth place. And that despite the damage to his front wing and the subsequent long pit stop to replace the part.
After the race, the French-Algerian driver was mainly disappointed that there was no final racing lap to fight for a podium place. The Grand Prix ended behind the safety car. However, team principal Laurent Mekies was impressed by the driver’s entire race.
‘Isack learns from Max’
“To be honest, he has been performing strongly since the start of the season, in the sense that he – both during the weaker weekends and when the car was good – found his own way and made progress race after race, both in terms of experience and skills,” explained the Red Bull team principal to the media. “He learns a lot from Max, every time he is in the car he learns a little more. And it was no different at Silverstone. He will not be satisfied with a fifth or fourth place – and neither will we.”
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Difference in experience
Hadjar has been less outspoken about the RB22 this season than his teammate Verstappen. The driver even said after the Silverstone race that he had a ‘good feeling’ in the car. According to Mekies, this is due to the difference in experience between the two drivers. “Max is dissatisfied with the balance of the car, that is a fact,” he said. “He believes that the underlying performance of the car could lead to much better results if we manage to solve the limitations regarding the balance.”
“I think Isack perceives the same balance limitation, a similar balance limitation, so we are not in a situation where one driver says ‘A’ and the other ‘B’,” the team principal continued. “They describe the same thing – they just describe it in a different way. I think Max paints a picture of what he believes the potential of the car will be, while Isack, who has a bit less experience, probably does not go as deep into that.”
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