‘Doing the easy stuff wrong’ - The difficulties in adapting to Red Bull’s F1 car

Isack Hadjar says he was “doing the easy stuff really wrong” in the early part of his first Formula 1 season with Red Bull.

The French driver impressed in his rookie campaign with Racing Bulls in 2025 and earned a promotion to the main Red Bull team in place of the ousted Yuki Tsunoda.

Though showing flashes of speed, Isack Hadjar only scored points in one of the first four races, though he has cracked the top six in every round since Canada.

Reflecting on his first season at Red Bull during the recent Hungarian Grand Prix, Hadjar said he was doing the difficult things well to begin with, but has now been able to be consistent in the car.

“It started a bit tricky,” he said of the 2026 campaign.

“The first couple of rounds, I feel like I was doing the easy stuff really wrong and the tough things, like being quick, in the rhythm and not too far from Max [Verstappen], really well.

“Since the last couple of rounds, I think I’ve found some consistency, and in the team we’ve fixed a few issues that make our life easier.

“It’s a lot easier when the car is reliable.

“When it’s performing, it’s easy to achieve results, I’m not going to lie.

“It’s good, but at the same time I would love to have a race where I can actually fight for a real podium, and that’s the next target.”

Asked to expand on what he meant by doing the easy things wrong, he added: “I think the starts carried on for a long time, and that’s not an easy thing to fix, but I was more referring to deployment issues at times, understanding the boost features, spinning on lap one, which is not ideal.

“Just stuff like that ruining our weekends. That takes a bit of adjustment, and now I think we’re well settled in.”

Red Bull second drivers have notoriously struggled to match the form of Max Verstappen in recent years, with the likes of Alex Albon, Liam Lawson, Tsunoda and Sergio Perez all losing their places at the main team.

But Hadjar has emerged as a strong team-mate to Verstappen, even if he has yet to beat the Dutchman on track in a race they've both finished.

“I actually haven’t surprised myself this year, to be honest,” he said.

“I’ve just been driving at a high level, definitely better than last year.

“That’s normal because it’s my second season, so I’m not very experienced, but I’m improving a bit.

“I would say Max has been very impressive on Sundays, all around.

“I think my one-lap pace has been pretty good, but how well he is managing the races is on a different level, so that’s what I’m focusing on working on.”