Isack Hadjar Calls Red Bull 'Undriveable' After Set-Up Changes Hamper Austin Practice

Isack Hadjar had a challenging second practice session at the United States Grand Prix in Austin, where he found his Red Bull RB22 to be 'undriveable' after some set-up changes. The session ended with Hadjar in ninth place, trailing his teammate Max Verstappen by a substantial 0.931 seconds, with Verstappen securing third place behind Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli.

The main issue Hadjar faced was with tyre grip, especially after the set-up tweaks between sessions. The front tyres overheated through the high-speed corners at the start of the lap, leaving him struggling for grip for the remainder of the lap. Reflecting on the session, Hadjar said, "We had an okay FP1, and then in FP2 I felt okay as well on the medium, even though we changed the car. And the soft, honestly, the car was completely gone for me. So yeah, very difficult to drive."

He expressed the need to regroup and find a solution, stating, "I need to turn things around tomorrow, sit down and see what we can do, because the car made a massive step down. We need to bring it back at least to the level it was this morning." Hadjar further elaborated on his struggles, noting, "It's just a disaster. After Sector 1, basically, where I made most of my lap time, from Sector 1 to the end of the lap, I was slower than on the medium. It was just undriveable, and I was losing the front end massively. So we need to have a look, because that's not normal, why there's so much deg on one lap."

While Verstappen did not face the same issues, thanks in part to a power steering change post-FP1, Hadjar confirmed there were some differences in their car set-ups. "Yeah, if they managed to do it on the other side [of the garage]," Hadjar said. "It's like the temperatures are going sky high, and we're going at the same speed. So we need to tweak something on the car balance because we're running different stuff. You need to try. But to have such a bad feeling, I'm a bit surprised, to be honest."

Red Bull's Technical Director, Pierre Wache, acknowledged the team's misstep with Hadjar’s car, while emphasizing that the set-up diverged only slightly from Verstappen’s. Wache commented, "Well, I think it's an overall set-up direction that we have to undo, between P1 and P2, and it's what we are working on this evening. They are not far away. With this type of layout, you have the full high-speed corner during Sector 1, after Turn 1, and I think if you overcook the tyre there, after it's more or less finished for the lap."

Wache also highlighted the challenge posed by the Circuit of The Americas' bumpy surface, saying, "As expected it's jumping a lot. The problem with this type of setup we are using, that is quite not as stiff as last year but not so far, is that the car is not very compliant on these bumps here." He concluded by focusing on the team's priority: "It's clearly the low-speed performance where we are focused on at the moment – low speed is the key for us."