Isack Hadjar’s superb run to third place in the Dutch GP was a highlight of the Zandvoort weekend, and just the latest in a series of impressive performances by the Frenchman.
His strong form has made him an obvious candidate for a promotion to the hot seat at Red Bull Racing, sooner or later. It will be then be up to him to prove that he could be one day be in the Vettel or Verstappen league.
Since his disastrous start to the season in Melbourne he has got better and better, consistently making it to Q3 and usually feeling a little bit frustrated to be “only” seventh or eighth on the grid.
Indeed last weekend he joked that he was finally happy to be as high as fourth….
What made his performance all the more noteworthy was that his FP1 session was compromised by a PU issue which subsequently caused him to lose the whole of FP2.
He went into Sunday’s race relying on long run data gathered by team mate Liam Lawson, as he’d been denied the opportunity to do his own homework.
However he put any frustrations behind him, and simply got on with the job. Under the most intense pressure, and in a race made complicated by safety cars and restarts, he didn’t put a foot wrong. The retirement of Lando Norris gifted him a place, but he’d done the rest himself.
“He drove a perfect race,” Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane told me. “And it actually all started Friday night, overnight, because he was struggling with the car on Friday.
“And between his engineers, himself and the simulator back in the UK, they put together a really good setup for P3 which then, of course, worked in quali. We extracted the most out of it.
“He did no laps in P2 at all. But honestly, we were pretty confident with our race pace. Liam had shown decent race pace, so we weren’t very worried about that.
“And in the race, it was fantastic – to be able to race and beat the Ferraris and beat the Mercedes was very impressive.”
The fact that he was able to put his Friday disaster behind him is what really impressed Permane, who has worked with the likes of Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso.
“One of the things that separates the great from the good is that they’re able to just focus on what’s in front of them,” he noted.
“So he had an awful day on Friday. He was just able to put that out of his mind and get on with it. And that’s that shows real character. I think that shows that he’s got at least part of what it takes to get to the very top, for sure.”
Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer was equally impressed by the young Frenchman’s performance, especially in such stellar company at the front of the field.
“He didn’t put a foot wrong honestly, the whole race,” he told me. “And we were a bit nervous, to be honest, before the start. Because of the technical issues, we didn’t have all the long run data we were hoping to have.
“But we were quite convinced that we can go with the one-stop. The team put a car together which was magic honestly, in terms of pace. He easily kept the Ferraris behind, he kept the Mercedes behind, and he was on par with Max.
“Honestly, [at the front] it’s different. You feel that everything becomes ultra precise, and you know that every tiny error will immediately cost you a position. And Charles was putting a lot of pressure, actually twice, with all the restarts. But Isack was racing like a big boy today!
“Obviously with Isack we see how quickly he’s picking up pace. He had no FP2. It takes some talent, it takes a lot of hard work, dedication and focus. And that’s what he shows on a daily basis.”
However Bayer hadn’t forgotten that Lawson was unlucky, and should have been well inside the top 10.
“I think here the third consecutive race where we had both cars in Q3,” said Bayer. “We think the car has the ability to be quick on almost every track. Honestly, Liam was on the hunt for big points as well, but unfortunately he got taken out by Carlos.”
Permane is also encouraged by the potential of the VCARB 02, which has been consistently competitive everywhere of late.
“We’ve got a very good car,” he said. “We look at this championship one race at a time, and we know that if at the track the guys at the track operate in a perfect way, which they have done this weekend, we will do well – and we have a very good chance to beat all our midfield rivals.”
Adam Cooper F1 