Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar has opened up about his late puncture, the loss of points, Pirelli’s tyre limit, and the impact of the early Safety Car on strategy following his retirement from the F1 Qatar GP on Sunday.
After setting the sixth-fastest time in qualifying with a superb lap, Hadjar started Sunday’s race under the lights on the yellow-walled tyres and lost positions to Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso off the line, although he did pass George Russell later on the opening lap. He then pitted under the Safety Car on Lap 7 along with fifteen other drivers and switched to a second set of fresh mediums.
Thereafter, a DRS train formed behind Fernando Alonso, and the 21-year-old went into tyre management mode. He dived into the pits once more on Lap 32 and swapped his mediums for the hardest compound.
Alonso eventually suffered a huge 360-degree spin on Lap 42 while under pressure from Hadjar, which promoted the Frenchman to P6. Unfortunately, he suffered a left-front puncture three laps from the end and retired the car.
What caused Hadjar’s puncture in Qatar
Speaking in the print media pen after the F1 race, Isack Hadjar shed some light on how his VCARB 02 picked up a puncture and further damage in the closing stages of the Qatar GP.
The Racing Bulls driver explained how the front left endplate had started vibrating massively with 10 laps to go and that its detachment on Lap 55 led to the puncture and additional floor damage. He also expressed his frustration over how the team hadn’t taken his concerns seriously enough beforehand.
“It was just 10 laps to the end. I saw the front wing end plate going crazy down the straight. I told the team about it, but they were confident. Honestly, I knew it was going to break.
“Once it broke, everything went under the floor and smashed the whole car up. The floor was damaged and everything was cooked.”
Asked if the gamble of staying out instead of pitting for a new front wing was worth it, Hadjar conceded that neither he nor the pit wall had entertained the precautionary measure in the heat of the moment. Furthermore, he agreed that an out-of-sequence pit stop would’ve relegated him to the back of the grid anyway.
“Yeah, honestly, I didn’t think about that. It’s actually a good shout. I don’t even think my pitfall was aware of that. But yeah, obviously, I would’ve been outside the top ten.”
Hadjar rues loss of points
Despite showing strong pace throughout the Qatar GP weekend, Isack Hadjar admitted that he was dissatisfied with his race start that initially cost him a position. Lamenting the loss of eight points, he also acknowledged that reliability setbacks are part and parcel of the sport.
“Honestly, I’m a bit disappointed with myself at the race start. I just messed up the procedure. I didn’t do a good job here.
“And that’s it. The reliability issue is nothing I can control. So, I don’t really mind. It’s just a shame to lose out many points like this.”
How Pirelli’s tyre mandate and early SC impacted racing at Lusail
With regard to the 25-lap stint limit Pirelli had set for every set of tyres at the 2025 Qatar GP and how strange it was to witness an early Safety Car prompt every F1 team, barring McLaren, to adopt the same strategy, Isack Hadjar remarked that these conditions made Sunday’s event rather uninteresting.
Emphasising the diminished strategic variability and how overtaking is pretty challenging at the Lusail International Circuit, the French-Algerian driver was rather critical of the quality of racing the penultimate round of the season had produced.
“It just makes the racing very boring. Having a maximum of lap allowed on one tyre makes it also very restrictive in terms of what you can do.
“It’s a difficult track to overtake. I had George [Russell] covered when he was faster than me, but he could have stayed behind me for 100 more laps. It was just poor racing.”
In terms of Pirelli’s tyre limit and low degradation enabling the drivers to go all out on Sunday and how physically taxing the 57 laps were, Hadjar admitted that he had a difficult and futile race.
“It was tough; it was tough. I should have stayed home, honestly. A waste of time.”
When asked if he can bounce back before the season finale in Abu Dhabi, the 21-year-old responded, “I will.”
At the same time, the Frenchman added that he would analyse his race start to prevent any future mistakes and also investigate why part of the car broke off on its own during the race.
“I’m still very pissed. I’m going to look at what I should have done better at the start and see why our car is just breaking down by itself.”
