Hadjar demands Red Bull clutch redesign after poor start ruins US GP from third

Isack Hadjar has called on Red Bull to redesign its clutch system after a troubled United States Grand Prix in Austin left the Frenchman sixth despite starting from third on the grid at the Circuit of the Americas.

Hadjar had salvaged a strong Saturday from what he described as a “disaster” of a weekend, qualifying just 0.036 seconds behind team-mate Max Verstappen on the second row. But a poor getaway allowed Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton to pass him in their Ferraris on the opening lap, and Lando Norris also went by on his way to fifth, leaving Hadjar well adrift of the podium fight he had been targeting.

After watching a replay of his start, Hadjar was unequivocal about where the fault lay. “I do everything perfectly in terms of procedure, and then I just have clutch over delivery,” he said. “These things are just out of my control. It’s starting to piss me off.”

The problems did not end at the start. Hadjar said he could barely hear his engineers on the radio during the race and rejoined the track after his pitstop on the wrong engine map. “I leave the pits with the wrong map,” he said, adding that the error cost him roughly a second per lap on the hard tyre.

Asked whether Red Bull had explained the clutch issue to him, Hadjar replied simply “No”, before issuing a direct demand: “It needs a redesign. That’s it. The clutch, it needs a redesign because at the moment it’s too fragile. It’s not coping well with temperatures. It’s a real struggle.”

Red Bull has been caught out at the start on previous occasions this season. The team has nonetheless shown faith in Hadjar, extending his contract through to the end of 2027 ahead of his return from a wrist injury that caused him to miss races at Zandvoort, Monza and Madrid.

Verstappen fared better but also fell short of his recent standards, finishing third on a two-stop strategy to end a run of two consecutive victories. The Dutchman credited a well-timed Virtual Safety Car for his podium and acknowledged the team’s underlying pace was “not good enough” on the day.