In a spectacular day at the Belgian Grand Prix, held at Spa-Francorchamps, Isack Hadjar, driver for Red Bull Racing, achieved an unexpected comeback, moving from 21st to sixth place. The key to his success was a unique pit strategy that surprised both the team and the fans.
From the beginning, the race was complicated for Hadjar, who had to start from the back of the grid due to a penalty for changing his fifth engine of the season. Aiming to complete a long first stint, he started the race on hard tires, managing to advance to 18th place before an accident involving driver George Russell activated the safety car.
After the neutralization, Red Bull opted to pit Hadjar to switch to medium tires, and surprisingly, they made him stop again at the end of the second lap to equip him with hard tires. This strategy gave Hadjar more options for the end of the race.
In the words of the driver himself: ‘The goal was to have options later. We lost some positions, but we knew we would recover them quickly.’ Although he was initially puzzled by the double stop, he acknowledged that the move was the right one, as it allowed him to manage his race better later.
After this maneuver, Hadjar demonstrated an excellent pace, with some of his best 10 laps averaging 1m49.727s, even surpassing the time of his teammate Max Verstappen. Thus, he surprisingly entered the points zone on lap 15 and held on until the end, defending his position against Lando Norris, who had started from 13th place and made his only stop later.
The team director, Laurent Mekies, praised his performance, stating it had been ‘his best race with us’ and emphasizing that his improvement had been constant in every race. With this result, Hadjar has added a total of 60 points this season, double the points earned by the team’s drivers last year.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
