Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar finished P6 in the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP as he had a pretty quiet and uneventful race on Sunday afternoon.
Starting in 8th, he took advantage of George Russell‘s issues off the line to move into 7th. Unfortunately for the Frenchman, he could not stay in touch with the top 6 and was left adrift, with a lot of the damage coming in the first stint as he struggled for speed on the mediums. While his pace was better on the hards, it was still not at the level of teammate Max Verstappen.
A DNF for Oscar Piastri moved him up another spot, with the driver of car #6 holding off Russell to take P6 on the day, 40s away from his teammate in 2nd and 31s away from Lewis Hamilton ahead in P5.
Isack Hadjar on medium tyre struggles and his displeasure at Red Bull tactics in 2026 F1 Hungarian GP
Speaking in the print media pen post-race, the 21-year-old was confused by why he was pretty competitive on the hard tyres but struggled so much on the medium. He had been losing nearly a second a lap to his four-time World Champion teammate before Verstappen boxed at the end of lap 14.
“I don’t know why we were slow on the medium tyre like that, and then on the hard we are fast again.”
Once the McLarens, Verstappen and the Ferraris had boxed, the 2025 Dutch GP podium finisher briefly became a roadblock as he helped them up for a lap, helping his Red Bull stablemate close right up to the back of cars #81 and #1.
While Isack Hadjar understood why the team did it, he was not very impressed by it.
“Yeah, it was very annoying. I wanted to pit either early or very late, and we pitted the worst lap.
“Yeah, I’m not very happy, and I don’t like interrupting the leader’s race. I know why we are doing that. But yeah, I’d like to avoid these situations.”
Isack Hadjar on the difficulties with the RB22 F1 car
While Red Bull have managed to improve their car following a poor start to F1 2026 where the car was pretty slow and struggling in the midfield in China and Japan, there has been multiple weekends where the RB22 is still extremely tough to drive.
Across the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP round, both Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar were left puzzled by a lack of grip and balance. Despite that, they managed to score the most points of all the teams on Sunday.
The Frenchman explained his surprise at how big the struggles were.
“We didn’t succeed to achieve that, like finding the sweet spot and having something drivable. For me it was not possible the whole weekend.
“I don’t know, on paper it looked like I was confident it was a track that was going to suit us, but then it just didn’t really come alive.”
Regarding the biggest limitation across the event, he mentioned downshifts — a common complaint from Max Verstappen over the last two years — and grip.
“Surprisingly, downshifts this weekend have been terrible, so that’s a good step back for us as a team. So that’s very cool.
“I think just… yeah, grip [as well].”
Similar feedback to Max Verstappen
Pushed on whether he had similar feedback to his teammate, Isack Hadjar confirmed that to be the case.
Once more, he mentioned how he will be studying what went wrong in the first stint on mediums as he was cut adrift of the front runners.
“Yeah, which is reassuring, let’s say. Otherwise I would be asking myself questions. So that’s good news.
“I think it also shows why the gap in qualifying is always that close. And yeah, I just need an answer on that first stint, because for me that’s what is really frustrating me today. Everything else this weekend, I’ve been doing well.”
Following the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP, Isack Hadjar is 8th in the Drivers’ Championship on 68 points.
