Isack Hadjar looks back on his Miami GP with mixed feelings, in which he ended his strong progress prematurely in the wall. The Frenchman had to start from the pit lane after a disqualification, but quickly worked his way forward and was in sight of a strong finish. As the only driver on the hard tires, he impressed with several overtaking maneuvers – until it went wrong in the chicane in lap five.
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When entering the chicane, Hadjar hit the wall, after which his steering broke and he was thrown hard into the barriers on exit. The frustration was immediately visible: the Red Bull driver repeatedly hit his car and steering wheel. “That was a heavy blow,” he said afterwards to the press. “I always get really annoyed when I wreck the car. Besides that, I think I could have easily scored points today, given the speed we had. So I basically threw it away myself.”
Hadjar remained notably honest about the incident itself. “I can’t really remember it, because it happened very fast. So I don’t have a clear picture of exactly what happened; it just felt like a big hit.” He mainly pointed to a lack of focus as the cause of the crash. “I was just not sharp for a moment, and then it was over immediately. I hit the wall and couldn’t do anything anymore. It just shows how important concentration is – and that was missing at that moment.”
Team mistakes
Up to the moment of the crash, Hadjar actually felt strong in the car. “To be honest, I felt great in those first few laps,” he said. “Overtaking came easily to me; the pace was good. I’m eager to race again. Having to wait three weeks now is frustrating.”
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The young Parisian admits that the whole weekend did not go smoothly for him and the team. “Both the team and I made mistakes,” Hadjar added. “Honestly, it was a bit of a disaster for both of us. We now have to work together and see what we can improve towards the next race. We do see that there is more power in the car. It’s no longer such a problem to reach Q3, which was the case in the first races. Today it didn’t work out, but I still feel faster than in the last two Grands Prix. It’s clear that we have made progress – just look at what Max (Verstappen, ed.) showed yesterday,” he referred to the Dutchman’s qualifying.
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