Isack Hadjar described the 2026 F1 British GP as a ‘waste of a race.’ The Frenchman finished the race in P5 after a front wing issue cost him a shot at fighting Russell and co. harder, despite a strong start in the first couple of laps.
Strong start undone by sudden loss of pace
Isack Hadjar had a very strong start to the British GP. He appeared to have a lot of pace and was looking like he could challenge George Russell. However, quite early in the race, he suffered a huge drop in speed.
Speaking in the print media pen after the race, Hadjar explained that the loss of performance was due to not enough load on his Red Bull. This meant that he needed to change his front wing at the second stop.
“Just a very good start this time. I mean, very good. Just the pace in the first three laps, very nice. I think I was kind of kind with Max. But, you know, also it’s good to follow him, which I was doing really well.
“And then suddenly a huge drop off of pace. [I thought] ‘OK, maybe it’s something wrong I did in terms of tyre management.’ I went on the hard, new tyres, low pace. Very confused.
“I was told we were missing load on the car. And once they changed the front wing, went back [out] again. I nearly gained two seconds straight away. A waste of a race, really.”
However, despite his frustrations, Hadjar said that he did enjoy racing Verstappen at the start of the British GP.
“It was fun, it was great. I was quite nice. I felt good behind him for a couple of laps, until I lost everything. It was good, he was very impressive today. He was fighting for a podium, so good information. But I wish I didn’t have to change the front wing.”
Strategy and Safety Cars impacted Isack Hadjar at the 2026 F1 British GP
Isack Hadjar was asked whether his early pit stop had left him vulnerable to rivals, including Lando Norris, but he believes the underlying issue meant the strategy ultimately made little difference.
The World Champion extended his first stint to create a nine-lap tyre offset, quickly making the pass after he put on hards.
“Yeah, but in the end, even if we pitted later or not, he was just faster at that time. Because I guess we had an issue. So yeah, it’s a bit frustrating.”
During the final laps of the British GP, Hadjar’s teammate, Max Verstappen, crashed, triggering a Safety Car. As the incident happened so close to the end, there was no time to resume racing, meaning that the race finished under Safety Car conditions.
This denied Hadjar the opportunity to improve his position on the restart, which is something he thought would have been possible.
“Yeah, because I had the stint on the medium, great pace. I was like, OK, there’s something to be done on that final lap, especially with all the deployment game. I had warm tyres, so I don’t know why we didn’t restart.
“I don’t have an answer, but I definitely wanted a final lap. It would have been, you know, maybe a shot at a podium. You never know.”
