Red Bull junior Isack Hadjar felt his latest Formula 1 practice run for the team at Yas Marina was “competitive”.
He drove Max Verstappen’s car in today’s first practice session. After recovering from a spin early on, Hadjar covered 22 laps and lapped within four tenths of a second of Sergio Perez in the team’s other car.
Amid rumours Hadjar may be promoted to Red Bull’s second F1 team next year, the 20-year-old said he gave a good account of himself.
“It was intense,” he told the official F1 channel. “I’ve done much more laps than usual.
“It was a great run plan, honestly I really enjoyed the session. I got plenty of laps. It didn’t start really well for me, but I improved quite rapidly and I was happy with the long run performance. And I was competitive as well in the short run. So it was not bad.”
It was Hadjar’s second outing of the season in the RB20 after taking over Perez’s car at Silverstone in the summer. He said he is yet to fully push the limits while behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car despite his previous experience.
“It was my fourth time in an F1 car today,” he said. “I’ve done four FP1 sessions, so I’m still new to it. I haven’t done any private tests, so every time I jump in, I feel like it’s the first time.
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“Everything comes at you so fast. I still didn’t explore all the limits of the car, so just on feeling, I can learn a lot still.”
After practice he returned to participate in the Formula 2 qualifying session. He qualified fourth on the grid with a best time of 1’35.873 – almost exactly 10 seconds slower than his best F1 time.
Asked after the end of the day about the difference between the two categories, Hadjar said “they’re worlds apart.”
“When I went back to the F2 car, it felt just super-slow. Everything comes at you slowly, but at the same time it’s incredibly physical without power steering.
“So I had to get back to it and get used to it, which was really tough. They are 15 seconds a lap slower – it’s huge.”
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