Isack Hadjar has done himself a disservice. The brand new teammate of Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing, crashed its new car during the second day of the shakedown in Barcelona. A downer for the Frenchman, as he had started his new adventure with the Austrian racing team properly.
After a strong debut year with the Racing Bulls in Formula 1, Hadjar received his well-deserved promotion to Red Bull’s top team. A series of strong results and qualifications – and also a podium in Zandvoort – were for team boss Laurent Mekies and then advisor Helmut Marko reason to move on the Frenchman. After a good first day in Barcelona, disaster struck.
Hadjar hard eraf
Several sources from Barcelona confirm that Hadjar – after taking over the wheel from Verstappen – left. At the exit of turn 14 on the Catalan circuit, the last corner of the circuit, the Frenchman shot off the track with his RB22. Quite a setback for him and Red Bull, as the shakedown in Barcelona and the upcoming test in Bahrain are the time to drive a lot of laps and collect as much data as possible.
Video of Hadjar’s car in the wallpic.twitter.com/Zcq9z4gYHw
— Holiness (@F1BigData) ___Escaped_link_697b2caf05813___
Bad omen
Hadjar started off strong on his first day with the RB22. The 21-year-old Frenchman drove no less than 107 laps and was also the fastest with a considerable difference of half a second on George Russell, who also looked very strong with Mercedes. Yet Verstappen’s new teammate was unable to follow up his shakedown in Barcelona properly.
Hadjar’s crash in Barcelona will undoubtedly bring back memories at Red Bull. Debuted in 2019 Pierre Gasly joined the Austrian racing team and immediately folded his car during the first test. Subsequently, he was unable to settle and was replaced midway through the season Alexander Albon.
IMAGE OF HADJAR’S CAR
📸@nachez98 pic.twitter.com/EkGl8ZsqLo
— Holiness (@F1BigData) January 27, 2026
