Isack Hadjar has poured cold water on the idea of winning his maiden race for Red Bull at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.
Coming to qualifying, Hadjar had a cut a relaxed figure, oblivious to the immense pressure linked to the second Red Bull seat, outwardly at least.
Further pressure was heaped on him following Max Verstappen’s spectacular Q1 crash, pinning all of Red Bull’s hopes on the young Frenchman.
Rising to the occasion, he became the “best of the rest” behind the Mercedes duo, setting himself up for a strong result in Sunday’s race.
Speaking in the post qualifying press conference, Hadjar confirmed his session not only ran to plan, but found further improvements when compared to Friday.
“Honestly, it was a very chill session,” he said.
“There was no drama for me. Also, it’s the first time, I think, in my small F1 career that lap after lap I found lap time, even on used tyres.
“So I was just building up to it. We did a very good job being consistent with the energy deployment management through the lap, so that was very consistent compared to yesterday, which was quite bad.
“So yeah, the approach was… it’s the first time in my career it’s that easy to put a car in the top ten, so then it makes the whole process a lot easier. You build up to it the way you want, you can allow yourself some mistakes. So yeah, in terms of pressure it wasn’t very high and that was good.”
A good car but no race-winning pace for Isack Hadjar
Relieving his thoughts after Verstappen’s exit, Hadjar said he did not feel any pressure, but hinted the RB22 still has pace to find.
“Actually, no,” he said when asked about carrying Red Bull’s qualifying hopes.
“I might be P3, but if Max was actually running the whole session then I don’t know if I would be here.
“So that’s a shame. I want to compare myself with the best and today that didn’t happen, so we’ll do that next time in China.
“Honestly, what happens in Melbourne, it just doesn’t really matter compared to the car we’re going to have at the end of the year.
“There’s going to be so many… the progression curve is so steep that it’s going to be a lot different. So, at the moment we know our weakness. We have a reliable car underneath, which is positive, but we’re just lacking pure performance at the minute.”
Hadjar then delivered a sobering respose when asked if he could challenge the seemingly all-conquering Mercedes in the race.
“No. And I think after Turn 1, if we keep our position then we have a good race, I think. But yeah, we simply don’t have the pace to win.”
READ MORE: Max Verstappen on qualifying crash: ‘I’ve never experienced that in my whole life’
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