Racing
© Morio
After dropping from sixth on the grid to 14th by Turn 1 in Barcelona before recovering to finish sixth, Isack Hadjar said Red Bull must urgently fix its starts because the team’s launch procedure is “too difficult” and “the window is too small.”
Hadjar’s race turned Red Bull’s biggest recurring weakness into the central story again. Starting directly behind his team-mate, he lost eight places in the run to the first corner after a poor getaway, then fought back through the field to salvage P6. The recovery limited the damage, but it also showed how much the team had already given away at lights-out.
Speaking to F1 TV after the race, Isack Hadjar said the problem has become a pattern through the season. “We just need to work on our starts, because it's just yeah it's not possible to keep going like that,” he said. “Every race weekend it's the same story. Today was a nightmare, but the whole weekend I was struggling. It's really the point we need to work on because everyone's made progress, but I went backwards [again]. So, yeah, procedure is too difficult. Window is too small.”
He sharpened that criticism in the media pen, saying the launch that mattered most was the worst one Red Bull produced all weekend. Hadjar said he had six practice starts in Barcelona and that the one on the grid was “the worst.” He also revealed he stalled the engine twice, something he said had not happened to him at any point earlier this season. “I'm not a computer, I'm not a machine, I can't be 0.0001% precise,” he said. “It's not working.”
Barcelona was only the latest example. Red Bull’s starts have been inconsistent throughout the season, affecting both Hadjar and Max Verstappen. Hadjar pointed to Mercedes as a reference point for what Red Bull has not yet achieved, noting that Kimi Antonelli had also lost places regularly in the early part of the season before Mercedes appeared to stabilize its starts over the last three race weekends.
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies did not push back on the diagnosis. Speaking after the race, Laurent Mekies said the team has had “weak starts so far this season” and linked the issue to Red Bull’s first year as a power-unit manufacturer. He said the team is still learning what it needs to improve “between chassis side and PU side.”
Mekies said Red Bull has “a very good power unit,” but also one with “a very narrow window,” echoing Hadjar’s complaint that the procedure leaves too little margin for the driver. He did not offer any timeline for a fix, leaving Red Bull with a problem that is no longer occasional noise but a clear performance handicap as the season develops.