Isack Hadjar must start the Chinese GP from ninth place on the grid, after a disappointing qualifying session on Saturday. The French-Algerian driver echoes the words of his teammate Max Verstappen, explaining how Red Bull has ‘already tried many things’, but cannot yet turn the tide. Nevertheless, the team is not going backwards, according to Hadjar, despite his worse starting position than during the Australian GP: ‘The performance is the same’.
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Isack Hadjar qualified third during his Red Bull debut in Melbourne, but a week later, no more than a ninth starting spot was possible. The French-Algerian driver thus takes his place right behind teammate Max Verstappen, who got no higher than P8 at the Shanghai International Circuit. Hadjar therefore has no regrets about his own performance on Saturday in China.
“I did everything I could,” Hadjar told the F1TV cameras. “I drove a good lap, but I just wasn’t that happy with the balance of the car. It was too slow compared to the other cars. It’s not the position we want to be in as a team, but we simply have to understand the car better.”
The brand-new Red Bull driver says, just like his teammate Max Verstappen, that the many attempts from the team to turn the tide have so far come to nothing. “We have already put in a lot of work to be better than yesterday,” Hadjar added. “But we are so far away from the drivers at the front of the field. We have already tried many things, but it’s not working yet.”
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‘Same gap as in Melbourne’
For Hadjar, however, the gap in Shanghai is no more worrying than a week ago in Melbourne. “No, it’s no different. I think we were about eight-tenths behind the competition in Melbourne, and that track was shorter than here in China,” he explained to the media present. “Because the track is longer here, our deficit is more clearly exposed. The loss over a lap is thus greater, but I think based on performance we are at the same level.”
Yet there are now seven cars between Hadjar and the polesitter, whereas in Melbourne there was only one. “I think the other teams just really messed up last weekend, I can’t say more than that.” Whether a solution will come soon for Red Bull, the driver doubts. “We are really at the limit of our current package now. We have to suffer for that now, but sooner or later we will make progress. That makes it okay for now.”
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