Isack Hadjar calls his car “just undriveable” after Austin practice struggles

Isack Hadjar described his car as “just undriveable” after a difficult second practice session in Austin. The Frenchman had felt positive signs in FP1, despite finishing 14th in the standings, before making a slight change in setup direction for the next session.

“I was happy-ish with the morning. Afterwards, I thought I was heading in the right direction, but it only brought a lot more problems,” Hadjar said. He explained that the car still felt manageable on the medium tyres, even after the changes, but its performance deteriorated sharply on the softs. “It was very difficult to drive, so I need to turn things around tomorrow,” he added.

The driver had already voiced his frustration over team radio during FP2. His simulated qualifying pace was especially poor, putting him nearly one second behind teammate Max Verstappen by day's end. Hadjar also said the car had taken “a massive step down” and that it needed to be brought back at least to the level it had shown in the morning.

The contrast within the team was clear. Verstappen was largely satisfied with the early signs from the RB22, while stressing that the balance through both slow- and high-speed corners still needed work. Technical director Pierre Wache said the team needed to make gains in the slower sections. Verstappen used the word “fine-tuning”, a stage that, in the practice report, did not reflect the situation on the other side of the garage.

Wache identified the Esses as part of the problem: in his view, Hadjar then paid the price for that through the rest of the lap. The Frenchman also pointed to heavy tyre degradation over a single lap and a loss of front-end grip in the high-speed corners. The task now is to recover the feel from the first session after the difficulties in FP2.