Isack Hadjar predicts the F1 Mexico City GP will be ‘extreme’ and that ‘everything is going to be on fire’, but remains hopeful that Red Bull can persist despite the challenges.
After a couple of race weekends marked by tough sessions and technical failures for Isack Hadjar, the Frenchman predicts the Mexico City GP will be difficult for all. With the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez being the highest circuit on the F1 calendar and the air density 25 per cent lower than at sea level, the circuit is not straightforward.
To combat low air and the risk of brake overheating, the teams do their best to ensure the cars’ cooling systems run properly, as the extremes can create additional difficulties. Under the new regulations and with the new cars, the turbos will be especially challenging in Mexico.
“I’m just thinking about how extreme it’s going to drive these cars,” Hadjar said to media, including Motorsport Week.
“Like last year, already it felt like sliding around a lot with the Monaco rear wing, and now it’s kind of the same downforce level throughout the year, and you’re going on a track like that.
“It’s going to feel slippery, like hell, so, of course, there are extreme conditions for the car, cooling-wise.
“It’s going to be very extreme, and for the engine as well, for the tyres, for the brakes. I mean, just everything is going to be on fire, even myself in the car probably.
“So, I’m not thinking about Ferrari or Mercedes. I think, of course, they are going to be very competitive. I’m mostly thinking about how tough on our end the weekend is going to be, but in the last couple of races, the car’s been working well on all very different kinds of tracks, so why not here?”
Hadjar on his US GP comments
While Red Bull has faced a difficult season, their recent victories in Malaysia and Singapore show the team is slowly moving forward. Still, both Red Bull drivers have been vocal about their frustration regarding the RB22’s problems.
Asked about the comments he made after the US GP, in which he criticised Red Bull’s issues, Hadjar revealed there were “important little things” the team does not do.
“We’ll keep pushing, and it’s something we’ve been working on, and there have definitely been big improvements if you look at the first couple of races of the year, and now we’re at a point where it goes a bit up and down,” the Frenchman said.
“We are aware of that, and we need to work with what we have until the end of the year. But the good thing is, the tough thing of going fast on track, I think we’re doing it. I think we also got it a bit wrong on the strategy. It’s been reviewed; we move forward, but I wouldn’t say they are silly things. I would say they are important little things that we don’t do.”
“We were probably not open-minded enough to the one-stop strategy, and we were very convinced the soft compound was working better, and maybe we thought the deg was higher than it actually was,” he said.
“And once you start with this, then we put ourselves in a difficult situation because I had a good pace on the soft; I didn’t want to pit too early. At the same time, we don’t want Max [Verstappen] to lose his race time because he’s on another strategy.
“So, in the end, that was confusing because if in the end, if we were all on a one-stop, everyone would have been happy.”
The Red Bull driver added that there was “stuff I should have kept to myself for sure” regarding his US GP comments.
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