Isack Hadjar’s Monaco Grand Prix did not start particularly well with two crashes in Friday practice, but he bounced back in the race with a strong points finish.
The Frenchman clipped the barriers on entry to the Nouvelle Chicane and would cause significant damage to his car, while he would also have another skirmish with a barrier later in FP2.
Despite missing out on crucial laps, Hadjar would go on to set an impressive lap in qualifying that put him just two tenths off Max Verstappen.
While it seems like he found a new level of confidence after the crashes, Racing Bulls chief racing engineer Alan Permane revealed what he told him in private after practice, when speaking on the F1 Nation podcast.
Isack Hadjar reveals he ‘lost his confidence’ after Monaco GP practice crashes
Hadjar would go on to achieve his best finish all season in the race with a sixth place, while teammate Liam Lawson also secured his first points of the season. Permane says this is down to the work Hadjar did after his shunt in practice to turn things around.
“He lost his confidence at one point. He was really struggling. At the end of FP2, he had one set of tyres. He damaged his first set in FP2 almost straight away, first lap. So he had a set of softs to do the rest of the session on,” said Permane.
“At one point, you could see he’d lost his confidence. He said: ‘I don’t understand the car. I don’t know what’s going on.’
“But he just stayed out and he just plugged away at it and finished up [on Friday] with a very decent lap. I felt at the time, those times had flattered us because we ran later and a bit less fuel, so to get into the top ten was a mega result.”
READ MORE: Who is Racing Bulls 2025 F1 driver Isack Hadjar? Everything you need to know
Alex Brundle thinks Isack Hadjar copes with ‘extreme’ challenges well
Hadjar has been a standout rookie in F1 this year, amassing the second-highest number of points behind Andrea Kimi Antonelli in a midfield car.
Alex Brundle has pinpointed one thing that Hadjar is able to cope with well compared to his counterparts after watching him in the last eight races.
“What’s impressive about Hadjar is his ability to overcome these kinds of great challenges of the sport, like Monaco, the events you imagine going in as a rookie would just be incredibly intimidating,” said Brundle.
“Okay, you’ve driven a Formula 2 car around Monaco, but now we’re going to go 15 seconds quicker. It’s extreme, that challenge, and how he and the other rookies are so well-prepared with simulators and so on, but he, specifically, Jeddah was another one, he [Hadjar] just takes on these big challenges and delivers the qualifying laps.”
Racing Bulls have edged closer to overtaking Haas with their double points finish in Monaco, having now amassed 22 points compared to Haas’ 26 points in the Constructors’ battle.
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