Hadjar walks back Austin criticism of Red Bull but stands by strategy concerns

Isack Hadjar has conceded he spoke too freely after the United States Grand Prix, acknowledging during Mexico City’s media day that some of his pointed criticism of Red Bull should never have been made public — even as he stood by the substance of his complaints.

Speaking in the media pen in Austin on Sunday night, the French rookie had been blunt about two persistent problems at Red Bull: a faulty team radio and poor 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. “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.”

Max Verstappen had also voiced frustration with Red Bull’s strategy in Austin, meaning Hadjar was not alone in his dissatisfaction. But when the paddock reconvened in Mexico, Hadjar reflected on the tone of his remarks. “I didn’t really think,” he said. “We need to be honest with ourselves as well, but there’s stuff that I should have kept for myself. I know that.”

On the strategic question, however, Hadjar was less willing to back down. Red Bull’s own post-race analysis of the Austin weekend confirmed that the strategy could have been executed better, and Hadjar elaborated on where he felt the team went wrong. “I think that, as a team, we were probably not open-minded enough to the one-stop strategy,” he said. “In a way, we were very convinced that the softer compound was working better. Maybe we thought the degradation was higher than it actually was and once you start with this, we put ourselves in a difficult situation.”

That confusion also contributed to the moment when Hadjar failed to immediately yield to Verstappen on the long straight towards Turn 12, briefly frustrating his team-mate. Hadjar was clear that the hesitation was not deliberate but a direct consequence of the strategic uncertainty. “I had good pace on the soft, so I didn’t want to pit too early. At the same time, we don’t want Max to lose race time because he’s on another strategy,” he said. “In the end, that was confusing because if we were all on the one-stop, everyone would have been happy.”

Hadjar acknowledged that while the strategic lessons from Austin can be applied to the remaining rounds of the 2026 season, some of Red Bull’s operational limitations — including the radio and start issues — will take longer to resolve, with team principal Laurent Mekies having indicated that a full fix is not imminent.