Red Bull admits wrong set-up direction behind Hadjar’s Austin struggles

Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache said the team had taken Isack Hadjar’s car in the wrong set-up direction between first and second practice in Austin and was working that Friday evening to undo it. Hadjar had struggled for grip on the soft tyre in FP2.

Hadjar said the car felt okay on the medium tyre in FP2 despite the changes, but was very difficult to drive on the soft. The front tyres overheated through the high-speed corners early in the lap, leaving him short of grip thereafter. He called the session a disaster and said he was slower on soft than on medium from Sector 1 to the end of the lap. Hadjar finished ninth, 0.931 seconds behind teammate Max Verstappen.

Verstappen did not encounter the same level of difficulty after a power-steering change following an FP1 issue. Hadjar said there were some set-up differences between the cars, but Wache stressed that their set-ups were not far apart. After Friday’s session, Hadjar said he needed to review the car on Saturday and bring it back at least to its FP1 level. Wache also said COTA’s bumps were making the RB22 jump, and identified low-speed performance as Red Bull’s focus.