Laurent Mekies admitted Red Bull Racing badly let Isack Hadjar down across the 2026 F1 Singapore GP round at Marina Bay.
8th in FP1 and a distant 9th in Sprint Qualifying as eventual Sprint and Grand Prix race winner Max Verstappen took pole position, the Frenchman was complaining about a lack of grip with his RB22. However, things got even worse from there.
In the Sprint, he retired very early with a PU issue. Although the Red Bull mechanics put in a heroic shift to change it before qualifying, a gearbox failure meant he never got a lap in during Q1.
Starting at the back on Sunday, the French driver overtook nine cars and gained 12 spots as he did a tremendous job to finish P10 despite extremely limited running on Saturday. He also set fastest lap at one point briefly following his switch from mediums to softs. At the end he was only a few seconds behind George Russell as the Brit got bottled up behind Nico Hülkenberg.
Mekies on Hadjar’s difficult weekend at 2026 F1 Singapore GP as Red Bull boss takes responsibility for all the gremlins
Speaking in his print media session following the race on Sunday, the Frenchman explained how tough a weekend it was for driver and team on the car #6 side of things.
He praised the mechanics for a huge effort they put in through Saturday and Sunday as Max Verstappen’s crew also joined him. Laurent Mekies also complimented Isack Hadjar for his efforts in the 2026 F1 Singapore GP.
“We had a pretty horrific weekend on Isack’s side of the garage.
“We basically didn’t give him any chance to do any competitive laps before the main race on Sunday; we had a number of different mechanical issues, some on the PU, some on the gearbox, some other glitches. So, it was really like a nightmare weekend.
“In that context, the crew, not only Isack’s crew, but it also was fully involving Max’s crew, who helped the other side of the garage, was under the car changing massive components all weekend long, up to this morning in Parc Fermé before the race start, which is probably not what you want on the last of three triple-headers in hot and humid weather.
“Huge, huge, massive congrats to the crew for what they’ve done. I’ve never seen such an incredible turnaround and then deliver a faultless race car on Sunday.
“Nonetheless, we have lost the chance to see Isack’s speed here, so we owe him one. In the race, starting last and spending 90% of the race in traffic, he still showed a very, very strong pace, which only confirmed that he would probably have been up there on the sharp end of the classification.
“It’s on us, but he certainly has shown that he has the speed with the few laps he’s done on Sunday.”
