Isack Hadjar was left searching for answers after a miserable Sprint Qualifying session in Singapore, with the Frenchman struggling to understand his Red Bull’s behaviour as team-mate Max Verstappen blasted his way to pole position.
The contrast could hardly have been starker. While Verstappen produced a stunning final lap to top the timesheets at Marina Bay, Hadjar qualified ninth, almost nine-tenths slower than the Dutchman before losing his own best effort to a track-limits infringement.
For a driver who had shown encouraging pace earlier in the day, the sudden collapse was as confusing as it was frustrating.
From early promise to baffling decline
Hadjar had initially looked competitive during Friday’s sole practice session, finishing fourth on the hard compound and even outpacing Verstappen.
But the picture changed dramatically when the Red Bull pair switched to medium tyres, with the Frenchman struggling to match his team-mate’s pace.
The same pattern continued into Sprint Qualifying. Hadjar finished 0.705 seconds behind Verstappen in SQ1 and still trailed by 0.246 seconds in SQ2, before the switch to soft tyres for the decisive final segment exposed an even bigger deficit.
His final effort was 0.892 seconds slower than Verstappen’s benchmark, although a track-limits violation ultimately rendered the lap irrelevant.
“I don't know,” he said. “It's just, what seemed like a good start of the day turned into a very poor performance. I felt very comfortable straight away in FP1, but on the hard compound, and that was it, really.
“I never got to have a good lap, really. I'm just fighting with the car. I had engine issues on the last run, I was just struggling. I don't know, it's just weird.”
The admission suggested a driver who had lost confidence in his machinery without finding a clear explanation for the sudden deterioration.
Hadjar had also complained of excessive bottoming during practice, particularly under braking, raising further questions about his car’s behaviour around Singapore’s unforgiving street circuit.
‘I just don't feel like it's drivable’
The Frenchman was unable to pinpoint whether the soft tyres had immediately exposed the problem, despite acknowledging a substantial increase in grip compared with the mediums.
“No, I don't know,” he said. “The soft definitely feels like a huge step to the medium compound. It was a lot more grip, but it didn't really matter anyway, all the other guys are on the soft as well, so…
“I don't know. I just don't feel like it's drivable right now.”
That final assessment makes for uncomfortable reading at Red Bull, particularly with Verstappen having extracted a performance that even he had not anticipated.
The four-time world champion described his sprint pole as “unexpected”, explaining that the car had begun to feel more alive as qualifying progressed.
“It felt like the car was coming alive a little bit more, but I did not expect it,” he said after the session. So, yeah, I was very happy to be first.”
However, Verstappen also acknowledged that Singapore continues to expose weaknesses in Red Bull’s package, despite the team’s stronger form over the previous two races.
“I think in the last two races we’ve been, of course, a lot stronger, but of course this track still highlights a few little weaknesses in the car,” he explained.
“But we managed to drive with them as well as possible.”
That last point is precisely where Hadjar’s troubles stand out. Verstappen found a way to work around the RB22’s limitations and deliver a decisive lap; his team-mate, by contrast, was left wrestling with a car he no longer considers drivable.
With Hadjar starting the sprint ninth and Verstappen leading the field, Red Bull has a clear performance gap to investigate — and precious little time to understand why its two drivers are experiencing such different Fridays.
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