Isack Hadjar could sense trouble in F1 Qatar GP but there was nothing he could do, as Liam Lawson and Fernando Alonso score handy points.
Even though he lost two places off the line in F1 Qatar GP, Visa Cash App RB’s Hadjar looked good to finish sixth defending from Mercedes’ George Russell. The lack of overtaking was helping him keep a faster car behind for most part of the grand prix until the latter stages.
Few laps to the end, Hadjar could sense issue with his front wing. His tyre cover flew off and soon the front wing gave up. He was furious on the radio after dropping to the back with barely a lap to go. The team took the gamble to see it through to the end, as they had no other choice.
In fact, Hadjar didn’t think about the situation but post-race, he understood the situation when a journalist noted that even if pitted to change his front wing, he would have finished outside the points anyways. And so, the team gambled to stay out and see it through which didn’t happen.
“No, I just…like 10 laps to the end, I saw the front wing and blades going crazy down the straight,” said Hadjar to media. “And I told the team about it, but they were confident. Honestly, I knew it was going to break, and once it broke, everything went under the floor and smashed the whole car up. So, yeah. The floor was damaged and everything was cooked.
“Yeah, honestly, I didn’t think about that. It’s actually a good shout from you, so. Maybe, yeah, I don’t even think pitwall was aware of that. But yeah, obviously, I would’ve been outside the Top 10. Yeah, that’s what,” summed up Hadjar, who felt staying at home was better than how the race panned out for him. He was pissed with himself losing places at the front.
He didn’t like the pre-mandated strategy as well. “No, honestly, I’m a bit disappointed with myself at the race start,” continued Hadjar. “I just messed up the procedure. I didn’t do a good job here and that’s it. Then the reliability issue is nothing I can control, so I don’t really mind. It’s just a shame to, to lose out many points like this.
“It was tough, so, yeah, I should have stayed home, honestly…yeah, waste of time. I mean, it just makes the racing very boring. And also having a maximum of lap allowed on one tyre makes it also very restricted in terms of what you can do, so. And it’s a difficult track to overtake. I had George covered when he was faster than me, but he could have stayed behind me for 100 more laps, so.
“It’s just poor racing. I will [be cool] tomorrow. Now I’m just, I’m still very pissed and I’m going to look at what I should have done better at the start and, and see why our car is just breaking down by itself,” summed up Hadjar, whose teammate Lawson scored points in ninth but was still not as pleased with the race situation after damaging qualifying which hampered his chances.
“Yeah, I think, honestly, we had a good race in terms of race pace,” said Lawson to media. “We just stuck in traffic like everybody. I think it’s very difficult to overtake, obviously a result of our qualifying yesterday. There is nothing you can do. It’s like we box on Lap 7 and I realised everyone was just going to do the exact same strategy from there.
“It’s a pretty pointless race to be honest. Yeah. It was a decent race. It’s a shame we picked up a bit of damage yesterday in Q2 and I think, it really hurt us and put us out of position today. And to recover and get points is strong. Obviously should have been two points with Isack. So it’s obviously very unfortunate. I don’t know what happened, but yeah,” summed up Lawson
Team boss Alan Perman noted that the front wing deflector broke off on Hadjar’s car due to heavy kerbing. “First of all, we apologise to Isack for the failure on his car,” he said. “The front wheel deflector broke which we think is likely a consequence of the heavy kerbing here. Nevertheless, it shouldn’t do that, and we will investigate how it happened.”
The 10 points would have solidified Visa Cash App RB’s position against Aston Martin, who scored heavy in Qatar. It is now a fight for sixth after Williams sealed fifth in the constructors’ championship. Visa Cash App RB has 12 points advantage over Aston Martin, with Haas and Sauber bit away.
Hadjar’s loss helped Alonso to score more points on a circuit where they had no predictions to do well. He had a good start and the intact strategy helped him to retain his track position without major dramas. In fact, he even survived a spin midway in the grand prix.
“Yeah, the start was good,” said Alonso to media. “I think, Hadjar in front of me, he had a bad start, that makes things relatively easier for me to take one and yeah, after the safety car, obviously we all committed to just two stints of 25 laps. So that was the end of the strategy discussion. We had just to stop in that lap.
“And that helped me a lot because there were no undercut threats, there were not overcut threats, so we were just on a train of cars. This is the second most difficult circuit to overtake behind Monaco. And I didn’t have the pace. I was slow the whole race, but thanks to the layout, no one could overtake me. And I was holding everyone behind. So yeah, I was lucky in many ways.
“In the start, I was lucky with the safety car, that everyone chose that strategy and then yeah, lucky with the layout that you cannot pass. Yeah, definitely lucky with the spin, any other circuit, maybe I finish on the gravel, so two points yesterday, six today, eight in total in Qatar weekend. That definitely is exceeding our expectations, really, really happy for the team. A crucial moment in the constructors’ championship, and now we can go to Abu Dhabi with a little bit less pressure and less weight on our shoulders,” summed up Alonso.
Here’s news on Cian Shields getting Abu Dhabi FP1 drive – https://www.astonmartinf1.com/en-GB/news/announcement/cian-shields-to-drive-abu-dhabi-fp1-session