Racing Bulls driver and rookie Isack Hadjar concluded the São Paulo GP in P8 with his teammate Liam Lawson at P7 by the end of the 71-lap race. While both drivers had a back-to-back points finish at Interlagos, Hadjar was anything but satisfied with his result, quoting it as “a not very good day for me.”
Poor strategy call on the first stint
The rookie started his race in fifth but finished eighth. He summed up his race in one sentence: “The race was not very good.”
Hadjar criticised the strategy call made by the team during the first stint, referring to it as “not good,” and went on to describe all the other factors that led to a disappointing result for him. Racing Bulls got undercut by Haas and Ollie Bearman at the first round of stops.
“The strategy on the first stint was not good,” Hadjar shared in the print media pen.
“And then we lost a bit of time, and we tried to make up for it. But we didn’t have an amazing pace for that.”
As a team, he believed it was a satisfactory result in their pursuit of sixth in the Constructors’ battle, but it was an unpleasant day for him as a driver.
“We had a very good Sunday, points-wise. It helps us on the 6th place, but… It’s not a good day for me.”
Final lap duel with teammate Liam Lawson
During the final lap, Hadjar went wheel-to-wheel with teammate Liam Lawson in his battle for seventh place.
Lawson executed a one-stop strategy during the race that helped him maintain seventh place. On lap 71, Hadjar made a move around the outside of Lawson’s car as they headed to Turn 1, but turned in too early, leading to contact. However, both continued.
Lawson wasn’t upset about it and shared that Hadjar “misjudged” the move; the French driver later admitted that he pushed hard and took responsibility for his mistake.
“Yeah, I pushed a little too much,” he confessed. “He went for the one-stop, and by the last lap I was right on his gearbox. I tried, and maybe I overdid it, my mistake. But it was fun.”
Both cars managed to finish within the top 10, which is crucial for their ongoing battle with Aston Martin and Haas, whereas the former failed to score points.
“It’s still a good day for the team,” Hadjar concluded. “We kept both cars in one piece, and that’s important for the Constructors. We’ll take the positives and move on.”
A learning experience
Hadjar emphasised that his time on Interlagos was well spent, as he gained valuable insights from the track and enjoyed overtaking, but at the end of the day, his hopes of that effort reflecting in the points weren’t fulfilled.
“Yeah, it’s a great track, I actually had a lot of fun. I gained a lot of experience, had plenty of overtakes, and some good defending. Honestly, the racing part was enjoyable, but the result doesn’t reflect the effort.”
