Isack Hadjar left the qualifying session of the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula 1 frustrated, even after a competitive performance in Montreal. The Frenchman finished Q3 in seventh position, just 0.028 seconds behind teammate Max Verstappen, but felt he wasted a great opportunity.
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The Red Bull Racing driver drew attention by leading Q2 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, confirming the progress shown throughout the weekend. After the difficulties faced in Miami, where he was far from Verstappen’s pace, Hadjar managed to significantly reduce the gap to the four-time world champion.
Despite this, the Frenchman left dissatisfied with his own performance in Q3. In an interview with F1 TV after the session, Hadjar said that a mistake right on the first attempt compromised his reference for the decisive lap: “I made a mistake on the first run of Q3 and couldn’t get a good reference for the last lap. I ended up pushing too hard,” the driver explained. According to him, the car had the potential for an even better result on the Canadian starting grid.
Hadjar especially regretted the fact that he considered this the best performance of the car this season so far: “It’s really a shame because it was the first time this year that we had such a good car, and I basically threw it all away because I didn’t do a good job. I’m very upset,” he said.
The young driver also commented on his difficulties in an interview with Sky Sports. He said that since the qualifying session in Miami, he has been making many mistakes on the decisive laps of Q3. On that occasion, Hadjar was more than eight tenths behind Verstappen before suffering an accident during the race by touching the wall at turn 13.
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“Since Miami in Q3 I haven’t been delivering. I’m making mistakes, I’m not sharp enough on the final laps of Q3 and I overdrive. I’m losing lap time, and that’s frustrating because we had a brilliant car and I should be further ahead.”
When analyzing the reasons for the difficulties, Hadjar pointed to characteristics of the RB22 as one of the complicating factors. According to him, both he and Verstappen have been facing a car that is difficult to control at the limit: “Our car is not the easiest to drive, it works in a very narrow window,” he added.
The Frenchman also believes that his own anxiety for results may be getting in the way: “It’s also wanting too much. Maybe I need to disconnect a bit more and stop thinking so much. I like to be in control and understand everything, but that didn’t help at all,” he concluded.
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