Isack Hadjar has had an impressive debut season and continued his run of form at the F1 Spanish GP, finishing seventh after a stellar drive in Barcelona. The Racing Bulls rookie started ninth and crossed the line in 8th. He was later promoted to P7 after Max Verstappen‘s post-race penalty.
The result marks Hadjar’s third consecutive points finish and lifts him to ninth in the Drivers’ Championship. The Frenchman has been on a brilliant qualifying run as well, making his fifth Q3 appearance this season on Saturday and his third consecutive race reaching the final qualifying session.
Come Sunday, Hadjar and the team executed an audacious strategy. They opted to extend his opening stint on soft tyres, giving him a clear tyre advantage during the medium-tyre phase in the middle part of the race. That choice proved decisive, allowing him to pass rivals and run strongly in seventh for most of it.
Ultimately he lost out to Nico Hülkenberg after the Safety Car as the Sauber had brand new softs fitted to his car. He had been 14s clear of the German before then.
“Honestly, we were very confident because we knew we had a pace advantage to clear the midfield cars,” Hadjar said in the print media pen.
“So we obviously extended on the soft and then just got tyre advantage, big tyre advantage for the medium stint. Medium stint pace was great, and honestly, everything was going like planned.
“P7 seemed to be secured at some point [before Hülkenberg got by], and with penalties applied it would have been a P6, so I think we can be happy.”
The strategy wasn’t a shot in the dark. Racing Bulls had done their homework during Friday practice. Hadjar shared that he wasn’t surprised they managed to extend so far on softs, stating:
“We had a good read on FP2 on Friday, so we knew we were going to do that.”
Hadjar shares hasn’t grown tired of collecting points
Despite now regularly featuring in the top 10, Hadjar isn’t taking anything for granted. When probed whether scoring points is starting to feel normal, he offered a grounded response. He said:
“It still feels fantastic because it’s not really about the points, it’s more about delivering a good race. And we are delivering good races recently, so I’m very happy.”
Hadjar showcased brilliant wheel-to-wheel racing on Sunday, pulling off a series of impressive overtakes. He made a strong getaway from P9, immediately challenging Pierre Gasly’s Alpine, which triggered a three-way scrap involving Fernando Alonso. Despite the pressure, the rookie held his nerve and defended superbly against the two-time world champion to retain his position.
Speaking about the duels, he said, “I pulled out some good moves today, but to be fair, I had a good tyre advantage. So this is definitely helping, but I enjoyed those moves with Ollie [Bearman], with Pierre, and especially that lap one fight with Pierre and Fernando was great fun.”
Racing Bulls introduced a new front wing at the Spanish GP, which was a step forward in their development program. While the upgrade didn’t revolutionise the car’s characteristics overnight, it showed progress for the team.
Hadjar has been the driving force behind Racing Bulls’ recent surge, remarkably outscoring the entire Red Bull team across the last triple-header. His efforts have helped lift Racing Bulls to sixth in the Constructors’ standings, now two points clear of Haas. With F1 heading to Canada next, all eyes will be on the rookie as he takes on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, a track he’s never driven before.
