Isack Hadjar finished P6 in the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP following a terrible start to the race. A solid recovery was helped by Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc retiring in the closing stages.
Starts this year have been a big talking point. Red Bull are one of teams who have struggled the most with them. On Sunday, it happened again.
From P6 on the grid, Isack Hadjar tumbled to P15 on the opening tour. He was swallowed up on the long run down to turn 1.
After passing Bearman around the outside approaching turn 13, the French driver worked his way back up to P8 by lap 21. He overtook Sainz, the Alpines, Hülkenberg and Racing Bulls coming back through. Then the late race gifts handed him two spots and four more points.
Isack Hadjar on his nightmare start to the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP
Talking about his awful launch in the print media pen, the 21-year-old was unhappy with how the practice starts had been and then how actual start was.
It is a key area he wants Red Bull to fix urgently.
“I don’t know [what happened].
“It’s just the whole weekend has been like this for me. I think out of the 6 practice starts we had the whole weekend was the worst.
“It had to happen on the grid. I stalled twice, which I never did the whole season.
“So yeah, we need to fix these issues because the procedure is way too complicated. I’m not a computer, I’m not a machine, I can’t be 0.0001% precise.”
Pushed on the main limitation, he referenced the start, before going on to discuss the RB22’s main issues through the three days. Having had the best car in high speed for most of the ground effect era, it is currently the biggest weakness.
“The start of the race.
“Regarding our car, compared to the rest, I think we’re lacking high speed performance, entries, everything at higher speed. We’re lacking a bit.”
Red Bull continue to be the fourth fastest F1 team in 2026
While Max Verstappen did manage to finish P4 in the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP to bag 20 points for the team, alongside Isack Hadjar’s P6, the lead Red Bull finished a long way behind one Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren.
Having come through the midfield quite quickly, it was a cruise for the rest of the race for car #6 as he had lost too much time in the first stint to dream of chasing Oscar Piastri down.
Nonetheless, he did find one positive on the gap to the front runners around the Circuit de Catalunya.
“Yeah [I was in no man’s land], especially if you’re starting at the back like me, you clear the midfield cars quite easy and then the top cars are nowhere near you, so then it’s a boring race.
“But to be fair, we did better than I expected for a track like that with these conditions. I think at the Red Bull Ring, we are looking for a better weekend.”
