Isack Hadjar acknowledges following his critique of Red Bull: "There are things I should have kept to myself."

“I wasn't really thinking,” he admitted. “We need to be honest with ourselves, but there are things I should have kept to myself. I recognize that.”

Since then, Red Bull has closely examined the race weekend in Texas, revealing that the strategy could indeed have been improved, a point Hadjar elaborated on in Mexico.

“I believe that, as a team, we may not have been open enough to the one-stop strategy,” the Frenchman stated when asked about the key takeaways from Austin by Motorsport.com.

“In a way, we were very convinced that the softer compound was performing better. Perhaps we overestimated the degradation, and once we start down that path, we put ourselves in a tough spot.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing

This challenging situation contributed to the misunderstanding when Hadjar was meant to allow Verstappen to pass. The Frenchman did not comply immediately on the long straight leading to Turn 12, as the team had requested. This caused momentary frustration for Verstappen, but Hadjar clarified that it was unintentional. It stemmed from the lack of clarity regarding the strategy.

“I had good pace on the soft tires, so I didn't want to pit too soon. At the same time, we didn't want Max to lose time because he was on a different strategy,” he explained. “Ultimately, that was confusing because if we all had one-stop strategies, everyone would have been satisfied. That's all.”

While this insight can be applied to the upcoming race weekends of 2026, Hadjar understands that he must simply adapt to some of Red Bull's other challenges.

Team principal Laurent Mekies has indicated that fully addressing the start issue necessitates hardware modifications that cannot be implemented this year.

“We continue to push on that front,” Hadjar said when asked by Motorsport.com about the inconsistent starts.

“It's something we've been working on. If you compare it to the early races of the year, there's definitely been significant improvement. Now we find ourselves in a situation where performance fluctuates. We're aware of that and need to work with what we've got until the end of the year.

“However, the positive aspect is that we are already excelling in the challenging areas, moving quickly on the track. We are making progress. I wouldn’t categorize the other issues as trivial; I would say they are important details that we need to improve. That's the reality.”