Following Thursday‘s Free Practice 2, Isack Hadjar and Red Bull technical director Pierre Waché shared their insights on the Frenchman driver’s recovery, upgrades and car pace at the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP. Max Verstappen got third place while teammate Isack Hadjar returned to action in ninth place following his injury.
Hadjar reports positive return to Red Bull at the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP
Returning to the track after his recent injury, Isack Hadjar noted feeling fully recovered and dismissed any limitations while driving. He expressed relief at making his comeback at the right time.
“To be fair, I’m absolutely not thinking about my injury when driving, so I feel like I’m back at 100%, which is good. So yeah, I’m happy on that side, it was the right time to come back.”
Focusing on Red Bulls‘ final upgrade package of the year, Hadjar felt pleased with his initial performance during his track time in FP1 at the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP. Even though he only had few laps across both sessions, the Frenchman felt much happier with the car’s behavior compared to when he last drove it. However, he recognised the need to step up his performance and increase his amount of push laps during FP3.
“To be fair, I was very happy in FP1, the first three laps I did basically. I just liked it out there, obviously I didn’t have many laps to keep improving, and then FP2 actually in the end, I did only four laps too. It’s hard to get a feel, but I’m happy with what I have, I’m happier than when I left. All in all, it’s a good day in terms of feeling, but I need to start switching on a bit in FP3, because today I had seven push laps, so I need to pick this up a bit.”
Addressing the other teams, Hadjar expressed surprise at the massive gap separating the field from Mercedes. While he feels satisfied that Red Bull remains close to competitors like McLaren and Ferrari, he acknowledged that Mercedes is currently on another level.
“A bit, but like why they are so far away, I think that’s very impressive. I think we have a good car you know, we’ve been in the mix with McLaren and Ferrari, but Mercedes, they are out of touch.”
Pierre Waché analyses car balance and developments for 2027
Technical Director Pierre Waché addressed questions regarding Red Bull’s performance gap to Mercedes at the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP. He admitted surprise at the significant gap, particularly on the straights, and stated that the team needs extensive data analysis to determine how much of that speed advantage comes from slipstreams. If the performance delta proves right, he acknowledged that catching Mercedes will present a great challenge.
“It was quite positive, we achieved more or less what we expected from the P1 onwards and the correlation was quite good.
“I hope that it’s closer but it looks like they are a lot quicker than us. We will see what we can do to make the car quicker but if it’s a real Delta it will be tough for us.
“Yeah, I didn’t expect this big gap after mainly on the straight and after you have to analyse if it’s coming from tow. But yes, we have work to do to achieve what they achieved.”
Turning to car set-up and feedback, Waché noted that Max Verstappen feels positive about the overall balance and the correlation of the new upgrades. However, engineers continue working to resolve a specific issue on the right side of the car.
He explained that the primary goal involves calming down the car’s behavior, particularly at the rear, to let Verstappen maximise the aerodynamic potential without excessive counter-steering.
“It’s quite positive in the term of car balance and in term of what the upgrade brings. It’s quite a good correlation with the simulator on that aspect. We still have some issues on the car on the right side that we are trying to fix but the main complaint is coming from there, not from the upgrade and balance.
“I don’t know exactly what he said to be honest. I know what he said to our debrief but as I said, the main problem he has is we have to make sure that we calm down the car in terms of ride and especially on the rear, that he can maximise the potential of the car and especially the aero potential.”
The future
Looking further ahead toward 2027 and ongoing struggles with tyre degradation, Waché remained realistic about compromises on the engineering side. He stressed that achieving perfection in Formula 1 requires constant balance between overall car weight and aero performance, leaving him cautious rather than fully confident that the issue will be gone by the next season.
“I’m not confident otherwise I will stop working. You are never confident even more when you have this type of issue and it’s everytime a compromise in our business. You try to maximi the overall car weight, the overall performance of the aero package, it means tight and you don’t want to destroy everything also to have that.
“But you know we are working on it and we are trying to fix it because it’s a massive issue but to be confident that it will be fully fixed, I am not.”
Finally, Waché confirmed Hadjar’s seamless integration back into the Red Bull team at the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP, noting that a full day of simulator work earlier in the week did not show any physical pain or changes in Hadjar’s driving style.
“Yes, he did at the beginning of this week a full day of simulator in a difficult track and it was very, very positive. He didn’t feel any pain from what I understood and on his driving I don’t see any change due to his injury on our side and after today he was quite competitive and up to speed directly to be honest. When you don’t drive competitively during so many races you have to take back again but you know his feedback was similar than before.”
