As Motorsport.com reports, Isack Hadjar has admitted that he reacted somewhat emotionally after the United States Grand Prix, conceding that there was "stuff that I should have kept for myself." Both Hadjar and Max Verstappen were left unhappy with Red Bull's execution in Texas, hampered by strategy frustrations and persistent technical issues including bad team radio and problematic starts.
"I have poor radio, I don't even know what's happening. And whenever I drop the clutch, it's going into a nightmare," Hadjar said in the media pen on Sunday night. "If we fix these two issues, we might already be on the podium. It seems like we can do the hardest things, but we can’t do the silly things."
We're aware of that and we need to work with what we have until the end of the year,
Speaking during the media day in Mexico, Hadjar acknowledged he is entitled to speak his mind, noting that Red Bull wants drivers with character, but admitted he perhaps could have worded things differently and that he "didn't really think." Detailed analysis of the Austin weekend by the team revealed that strategy could indeed have been better. As Hadjar explained, the squad was not open-minded enough to the one-stop strategy, convincing themselves the softer compound worked better and overestimating degradation.
That difficult situation triggered a misunderstanding on track when Hadjar did not immediately let Verstappen through on the long straight towards Turn 12 as requested. While it caused brief frustration for Verstappen, Hadjar clarified it was not deliberate and stemmed directly from the confusion surrounding differing strategies. Team principal Laurent Mekies has also explained that fully resolving the start problem requires hardware changes that cannot be made this year.
Even so, Hadjar points out that the team keeps pushing on that end, noting a big improvement compared to the first couple of races of the year despite performances now going a bit up and down. "We're aware of that and we need to work with what we have until the end of the year," Hadjar said, adding that the team is already managing the tough task of going fast on track.
