MILTON KEYNES, UK – Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Isack Hadja claimed the first podium finish of his Formula One career with an impressive drive to third place at the Monaco Grand Prix in his RB22 powered by Red Bull Ford Powertrains.
It was a second successive podium for the team, and afterwards the 21-year-old French Algerian described the race as “very difficult”, adding he had to “dig very deep”.
“We got off to a clean start and were managing our race, and then within the first 10 to 15 laps I started having big drivability issues,” he explained.
“If there’s one track you don’t want that, it’s here, so that was incredibly challenging having to cover 60 laps. There was then uncertainty about what was going to happen with the red flag and you need to get your head back again in focus. Even towards the end, I was still lacking power on the restart. It really was the longest race of my life but now it’s finished we got the podium. Huge thank you to the Team, I trust these guys.”
Team-mate Max Verstappen qualified in second place, but a technical issue meant the four-time World Drivers’ Champion had to retire on the first lap.
“During the formation lap I could feel that something was off and the pre-start was terrible. There was no consistency and then, at the start, the engine just dropped out. I dropped the clutch and it went dead and had no power,” he said.
“When I got a bit more power back, unfortunately it was messed up so I had to bring it back slowly. It was such a shame for us as everything was going really well up to that point. We felt great in the car all weekend and to come out with no points and to finish the race like this when you do everything so well as a Team is of course disappointing."
Laurent Mekies, CEO & Team Principal, said: “Mixed emotions today, as Isack and the team did a great job to get him to the podium, overcoming some technical issues on the car, but on the other side of the garage, we lost Max’s car straightaway with an engine issue. It was hard to take as he had incredible pace all weekend. It’s frustrating when you miss out on a big points score, but that’s part of the game, and we can only apology to him. For Isack it was a very intense battle in the car considering the number of issues he had to deal with. It was also an intense battle for the team in the garage as they worked to keep his car alive to the finish. In that context, making it to the podium is a very strong result. The most important lesson we take away from Monaco is that the underlying performance of the car keeps improving."
Mark Rushbrook, Global Director, Ford Racing, said: “Monaco was a significant weekend for the Red Bull Ford Powertrains partnership. To secure a second consecutive podium and place three Red Bull Ford Powertrains-powered cars inside the top six demonstrates the progress being made across the programme.
“Results like this are built on thousands of hours of engineering, development and collaboration across Red Bull Ford Powertrains. Seeing that work translate into performance on one of the most demanding circuits in motorsport is incredibly rewarding for everyone involved.”
The Visa CashApp Racing Bulls team also had an excellent race with Liam Lawson finishing fifth, followed by teammate Arvid Lindblad in sixth place.
F1 fans won’t have long to wait to see the cars in action again. Next up is the Spanish Grand Prix this coming weekend.
