"Completely unmanageable" – Isack Hadjar seeking solutions following "significant" difficulties during practice in Austin.
It was a day of mixed results for Red Bull during Formula 1 practice at the Circuit of the Americas. Max Verstappen expressed general contentment with the initial performance of the RB22, though he emphasized that there was still a need for better balance between high-speed and low-speed corners, with technical director Pierre Wache noting that Red Bull had to improve in the slower sections of the track.
While Verstappen described it as 'fine-tuning', the situation was far from that on the other side of the garage. Isack Hadjar had a mostly positive feeling during FP1, despite finishing 14th in the standings, but opted to pursue a somewhat different setup direction for the second session of the day.
"I did [make a lot of changes after FP1]. I felt somewhat satisfied with how it went this morning. After that, I thought I was moving in the right direction, but it only created a lot more issues," the Frenchman reflected.
"I still felt decent on the medium tires, even after we altered the car. But on the softs, the car was completely unmanageable for me. It was very tough to drive, so I need to make some adjustments tomorrow.
"We need to sit down and evaluate what we can do because the car took a significant step backward. We need to restore it, at least to the level it was at this morning."
Hadjar had already been expressing his frustrations over the team radio during FP2. His qualifying simulation, in particular, fell apart, leaving him nearly a full second adrift of teammate Verstappen by the day's end.
Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing
The balance issues caused Hadjar's front tires to overheat alarmingly quickly, leading to a cascade of problems.
"It was just a disaster. I gained most of my lap time in sector 1, but from there until the end of the lap, I was slower than on the medium tires. It was simply undriveable; I was losing the front end significantly.
"We need to investigate because this is not typical, why there was so much degradation over a single lap. The fronts were completely worn out in the high-speed [corners]."
This particularly occurred through the Esses, after which Hadjar faced the consequences for the remainder of the lap, as Wache noted.
"With this layout, you encounter full high-speed corners in sector 1, right after Turn 1. I believe if you overheat the tires there, it’s essentially finished for the lap," Red Bull’s technical director remarked.
Things need to improve substantially for qualifying, although Hadjar drew some confidence from Verstappen's performance that day. He remains optimistic about turning the situation around with new setup adjustments before parc ferme conditions take effect at the start of qualifying.
"Yes, I mean, if they manage to sort it on the other side… The [tire] temperatures are just through the roof, but we are achieving the same speeds in those corners. So we need to adjust something regarding the car balance. We were trying different strategies, but to have such a negative feeling, I’m a bit surprised to be honest."
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