Laurent Mekies has hailed Isack Hadjar’s 2026 F1 Belgian GP performance as his “best race with us” after the Red Bull driver charged from P21 to sixth at Spa-Francorchamps.
Red Bull, alongside McLaren and Aston Martin, elected to take a number of power unit component changes at Spa-Francorchamps, accepting grid penalties in the hope that the circuit’s overtaking opportunities would allow them to recover positions during the race.
Hadjar made the most of that opportunity.
The Frenchman progressed through to Q3 during qualifying before his cumulative 30-place grid penalty was applied, dropping him to P21 on the grid. He avoided starting from the back of the field only because Fernando Alonso was also handed a similar drop.
From there, Hadjar steadily worked his way through the field before Red Bull opted for an aggressive strategy that saw him pit twice during the early stages of the race, with the team targeting a long final stint on the hard compound.
Mekies praising Hadjar’s performance
The strategy ultimately proved too optimistic, forcing Hadjar to make a third pit stop. However, the time he had gained earlier in the race was enough to preserve a strong result, with the Red Bull driver eventually holding off Lando Norris to finish sixth.
Speaking after the 2026 Belgian GP, Mekies praised Hadjar’s performance and the progress he has made throughout the season.
“I think it is his best race with us, no question,” Mekies said. “Honestly, it’s not only a spike, it’s been just a little bit better every single race, for speed. So he’s bringing some speed every time he’s driving.
“Today is another step, this weekend is another step, because he was very, very fast from FP1.
“And yes, we’ve put him on a slightly unusual strategy, which in the end, with the timing of the VSC, also offered him the possibility to beat Lando fundamentally. So it was good.
“He was very, very strong. His pace was top three pace. So [I’m] very, very happy with his progress.”
Hadjar’s pace on par with Norris and Antonelli
Hadjar’s performance was backed up by his pace throughout the race, with his fastest lap ranking third overall behind Norris and Kimi Antonelli.
The result highlighted the strength of Red Bull’s package at Spa, despite the team running an older specification of its rear wing. Max Verstappen also secured a podium finish in third, but Mekies stressed that Red Bull still has work to do before it can consistently produce the same level of performance at every circuit.
Asked why the team had performed better at another energy-starved circuit after struggling at Silverstone, Mekies insisted that Red Bull was still facing challenges at Spa-Francorchamps.
“Even if you simply look at it from the fact that you need to have a compromise between the cornering speed and the straight-line speed, and certainly if you think about, for example, Max, with everything he’s able to bring into the cornering speed, you don’t get as much benefits if you have a trade-off with the next straight.
“So it’s what it is. We are trying to progress on our side, we have some homework to do to progress on this sort of track as well.
“We don’t think we have discovered all the tricks. I say that in a good way. All the good tricks that are needed to be very, very strong on this sort of track for energy management, but everybody’s working very hard against it.”
With Hadjar recovering from the back of the grid and Verstappen finishing on the podium, Red Bull left Belgium with one of its strongest weekends of the season so far.
However, Mekies believes the team must continue to understand how to unlock that level of performance across a wider range of circuits as the season progresses.
