Red Bull Can’t Ignore Isack Hadjar Anymore - LawVS

Red Bull can't ignore Isaac Hajar anymore. It also can't ignore what's going on behind him, because Red Bull's team boss has now just admitted that Max and Isaac, they're the ideal pairing. You see folks, Red Bull arrived at Spa with a clear plan for the guy in the second seat. As has been made very clear thanks to FIA documents, the Frenchman's in an unenviable position of having used up plenty of engine doodads this year. The plan for his race weekend was simple, that he would be assisting Max Verstappen wherever he can. You take the engine penalty, you get fresh parts, you help out Max in Q3, so you gotta get into Q3, and then for Sunday, you basically just try and recover whatever you can. And based on the last couple of seasons, in the second Red Bull car, it'd be a minor miracle if you could even be in contention for a single point. Well, um, Isaac did more than a single point, he did eight times more than that. So yeah, I think it's quite safe to say that the Frenchman, uh, he understood the assignment, and given the fact that we have Laurent Mechies in charge, we have Isaac Ajaar in the second seat, now Red Bull's taking on Gwen Le Greux, you could almost say that within this organisation, there's a little bit of a French revolution going on here. But nationalities aside, Isaac did exactly what the team wanted him to do, and got in to get that valuable tow that Verstappen really needed to try and make some progress within the Belgian Grand Prix. And if you want a little bit of an uncle act, he went to go on and get the third fastest time of the entire race, only behind the likes of Lando Norris and Kimi Antonelli. Now, sure, some of you might get the foams of doubt out and say, oh, well, this isn't really a big deal, because the Red Bull car is slowly, but surely, improving, so, you know, being in the top six, oh yeah, big deal. Well, look what that second car's been dealing with since, I would argue, say, the end of 2023. What Hajar's able to do right now is exactly what Red Bull needs. They need a second car to try and maybe get at least a chance of fighting for third place in the constructors. And, of course, for Max Verstappen to try and get somewhat closer to the top two, so that means he can continue to see what Mekis describes as continuous progression. And by Sunday evening, team boss Lauren Mekis was calling the events of the day Hajar's best race for Red Bull ever. He also said the pace was worthy of the top three, which makes sense given the best lap thing I just said. Three days later, Mekis then described Verstappen and Hajar as Red Bull's ideal pairing. So if you're Arvid Lindblad or Liam Lawson, you must be thinking, god damn it! It also doesn't help that nobody can really read what Max Verstappen's camp is up to right now in the background. That's where I think that Isaac's overall performance around the Belgian Grand Prix capped off something that goes beyond a recovery drive. You can't just say, oh, well, that was a nice Sunday, but only in isolation. Other than that, he's still a Red Bull second driver. He's still going to be up for debate at the end of the year. I think we're past that now. We did get to that point in Miami, and even I myself was musing that as well, because, well, the last few years, we within the media and within the fandom have sort of been trained to think that way. And going into the weekend, Red Bull was probably thinking, well, we're going to have to do all this stuff with the second car and changing engine parts, so the best thing we can do is try and make him useful to help out Max who may have a chance at getting a solid podium finish or maybe try and go for an outside shot of a win. However, by the end of the weekend and then going into the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, we're getting this kind of talk from the team principal that the lineup of Max and Isaac is something that he wishes to protect. So indeed, I don't think Red Bull can ignore Isaac Hajar anymore. He is a driver in his own right, not just Max's butt monkey. So indeed, you should also not ignore what's going to happen behind him because those two drivers in V-Carb and arguably Nikola Solov in Formula 2, they'll be looking at that and be thinking, well, what do we do now? They'll be praying that Max Verstappen leaves within the next year or two. But needless to say, Isaac must be feeling really good right now. Perhaps maybe in a position to think that maybe he's the guy that might usher in the end of the infamous second seat curse. Yuki Tsunoda watching on from the sidelines, obviously. Although if recent rumors are anything to go by, he might be back in F1 soon with Hast, but that's for another video. But yeah, as I mentioned earlier, for Hajar, the season didn't start off that well. His first four races at the senior team gave Red Bull reasons to worry for both him and themselves. He retired in Australia from an engine issue. He finished 8th in China and came home 12th in Japan. Then of course, we got the Miami qualifying disqualification. He started in the pit lane. It was going to be a recovery drive in of itself, but then not that long into the race, he went and crashed into the wall. And then Formula 1 looking for some content to try and distract from the regulations themselves, saw Isaac lamenting his issue, pounding the steering wheel, and thinking, we're going to milk that content for all that it is worth. Really? You're that much in the hole regarding your regulations and you are once again after Spa, that you're resorted to going, ha ha, Isaac Angi. But yeah, after that particular retirement, Isaac only had four points to his name, those four points from China, and naturally conversations were starting to spread about, oh, maybe are we going to be seeing a demotion anytime soon? Because, you know, Liam lost year. Well, yeah, that might've been a little premature, but that still makes the media want to self-perpetuate the story because it's become tradition at this point. But after that particular American race, things changed. Hajar went on an absolute tear that is continuing to this day. 5th in Canada, 4th in Monaco, 6th in Austria and Spain, 5th in Silverstone, and then of course the P6 from Spa. From the back of the grid. As a result of that tear, Hajar now has 60 points, one place in the standings below Max Verstappen. Not one time since Miami has he finished outside the top six, and considering many reckon that Red Bull are currently the fourth best team, that is a slight beat on expectations, I'd say. So that run changes how Belgium should be understood, I think. Red Bull didn't take a penalty on a driver who was already struggling, but instead, I reckon, sacrificed track position for one of the grid's most consistent scorers. Now, given the nature of Spa and regarding his parts pool, choosing this moment, the Belgian Grand Prix, to take these penalties on the chin was a logical and sound one, and you might be thinking that, oh, this is absolutely not fair. Well, yeah, I just ask you to sit down and listen to me, because, well, it's logical, because Spa is one of those places where you can get some overtaking done. It's not going to sting as much that grid drop than, say, maybe somewhere like, oh, I don't know, Monaco, perhaps? But yes, initially, it did look like Isaac's weekend was over before it began, because he was going into yet more parts from his internal combustion engine, which, according to these documents, it consisted of the engine itself, the turbocharger, and exhaust, so, yeah, it looked inevitable, and as the pundits said rightly, if you're going to make the call, do what McLaren did with Lando Norris on the same weekend, because the circuit, again, does offer overtaking, and it means that Red Bull can use these new components across the rest of the season. So, yeah, Hajar's qualifying position stopped being the main objective, so he basically became a tactical asset. He accepted the job without complaint, calling it the right decision, and said the mission had been clear. I mean, he even later joked that he was a deliveroo driver, and then when somebody suggested, oh, maybe like a postman or something like that, he went, exactly, because you might be thinking that was a derogatory comment, but if you think about it, and what he was able to do, it then just projects Isaac Hajar as a man who delivers, and because of what he was able to do, Max was able to qualify on the front row, and he was able to get on the podium, and based on Max's own assessment, he said that without Isaac's toe down at that particular straight, he would have ultimately qualified 6th, and of course, Hajar didn't get a representative time. He qualified 10th, but then that fell to the back of the grid after he took his penalties, but in reality, it really didn't matter, because even if he got poled, well, at least provisionally, he would have been at the back of the grid anyway. But the most important thing of that weekend is what happened next, what Isaac was able to do with the fresher parts on his wagon, as well as what was going on with other people's races, and their own particular woes, and reliability issues. Hajar started on the hard tyre, and he gained several places almost immediately. By turn 5, George Russell's battery charge issues, and subsequent retirement, brought out the safety car, and opened an unusual strategic opportunity. They stopped Hajar twice during the opening laps. Now at first, you might think that, since we didn't see it, it looked like a botched stop, but in actuality, the sequence meant he'd fulfilled the two compound rule during a race. What I mean by that is that you have to use two different sets of tyres in a Grand Prix, and then after that, you can basically do what you want in terms of strategy. If you just want to keep stopping, and go hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, assuming you've already done a medium, then you're good. The original intent of the strategy, before what happened around Lecombe, was down to Isaac just doing a very, very long stint, and then hoping for the best. But even then, with the opportunities at hand, thanks to the safety car, and even the other virtual safety cars, he did have to come in eventually, to change onto fresher tyres. All was said and done, and the race settled, Hajar did find himself in 6th place, ahead of Lando Norris, who he too had to take an engine penalty, and started 8th places further forward. And yes, you might be about to say, with your own foam of doubt, that, oh well actually, Isaac only was able to get that place, because McLaren botched his pit stop Lando's, well yeah, you're right, but points mean prizes at the end of the day, and did Hajar cause that problem in McLaren's pit lane? No, he did not. And of course, Lando was bearing down on him, but Isaac held him off, and kept that 6th place, like Bortoletto was able to do with Lindblad for 8th. I mean, that result alone was impressive, and when Mechies came out, and declared that Isaac had the third fastest lap time overall, well, that gave us even more substance, behind all of the potential that we saw from Hajar. But yes, the comparisons to Lando and Kimi, they do need a little bit more context, I'll be fair there. It doesn't prove Hajar matched the leaders throughout every single stint of the lap, because you know, traffic, tyres, energy management, those do shape each driver's races individually. But nevertheless, the boss still saw enough data to call it on camera, as Hajar's best Red Bull performance yet. He also said Hajar had improved each time he drove the car, the clearest expression of a trend Red Bull had watched develop for the last 6 races. Now, you might be wondering whether or not I am going to title this video Isaac Hajar's Revenge Arc Has Begun. Well, contrary to my stuff that I do with various other drivers, I am not going to do that. At not one point do I believe Red Bull has betrayed Hajar, nor do I feel like Hajar is seeking any sense of justice, or feeling like he's hard done by, because he agreed with the plan for the tow, and then he praised the race strategy of the team afterwards. Any source of frustration from that weekend would have been just down to the fact that the parts needed to be changed, because based on the performance that we saw, and that he believed that he could do, had he been able to qualify more conventionally, he might have been in with a shot for a podium. And I think that viewpoint of Isaac's doesn't even make my argument that little bit stronger, because indeed, if he was able to get the third fastest lap time of the entire race itself, then, you know, podium place? Not all that far-fetched. And I think it also means that Isaac's no longer a one-dimensional driver. He's not only there to help out Max Verstappen, and that's his lot. That alone no longer defines his job description. In short, Hajar has his own worth, and his own values, and his own capabilities, in helping Red Bull score some very decent and necessary points, because, well, they were able to, the team, make good use of him on Saturday, and Isaac was able to convert that strategy into something meaningful. A front-row start for Red Bull at a time when even though mathematically, Max Verstappen still can activate his exit clause contract should he want to, it just sort of dies down the lamentations or the ridicule of Red Bull. And if he can also do the same thing around Hungary, a podium, or even a win, it will mean that Red Bull will go into the summer with at least a little bit less on their back regarding, is Max gonna go? Is Max gonna go? It will certainly give them a little bit more time to focus on what's actually happening this year. Either way, I think Isaac's now too valuable to be considered just the second car, and you really got to look to the language throughout the entire weekend to see what I'm getting at. If you follow it across the week, on Saturday, Hajar's job was practical, but then just 36 hours later, the term became far more glowing to be described merely as practical. Then came the comment which changed the meaning of the weekend. Mekis was asked about Verstappen's future and the interest Red Bull had received from other drivers. He then said the team could see massive growth from Hajar alongside Max. He then called them, as I said earlier, the ideal pairing. Now, crucially here, nobody asked Lorne to plug Hajar in that particular comment. The subject was about Max and Red Bull's place in the driver market, but Lorne actively chose to make Hajar part of the response. Well, I mean, the answer's simple. Isaac is now no longer seen as something that's interchangeable, as something that is expendable. He is his own man and his own driver. He brings his own sense of worth to the Red Bull organisation. He will hopefully be the one to then put to bed the Red Bull second seat curse, which has been around since the days of Daniel Ricciardo when he left for pastures new, or pastures awkwardly new with Renault, and then Pierre Gasly took it on, and then we went from there. It's really left Red Bull in a pickle for several years now, definitely throughout the 2020s, but now I think this team has turned a corner, and we might actually start to see, if they can help it, a line-up that could actually go the distance as long as Max wants to remain with the team. As in, this could be something that we will see for at least two, three seasons, maybe? Yet the phrase ideal pairing is not without its issues, because it does sound very glowing for the senior team, but for the junior team, you're thinking, ah, Verstappen's contracted through 2028. Performance clauses could allow him to leave earlier, but imagine that he stays for the whole deal as long as he sees, as Meggie's described it, progress. Imagine Red Bull keeps Hajar beside him throughout as well. Where does that leave Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad? I would include Nicolas substantially, but since he's still in F2 and focusing his own campaign, that's for another time, but for the second team right now, it's all the more pressing. Lawson already reached the senior team, but was then sent back, albeit with quite the rebound, racing Bull boss Alan Permain recently admitting, again, that Lawson wasn't the same driver immediately after the demotion. Now though, he sits 10th in the championship with 39 points, leading the charge and securing Vicar the coveted prize of P5 in the Constructors, the ultimate goal of the Faenza team since it became Toro Rosso. Yet the purpose of this rebuild has now become that little bit less obvious. Now we've had this very vocal response as in, well, what's the point of Liam doing all of this if he's expected to, well, not get the call-up? What's going to be the future of Lawson, especially if Solov goes on to win the F2 title, the first time a Red Bull junior has actually achieved the feat? So Liam now has to try even harder to make a good and valuable reason for there to be even a vacancy or for them to even consider demoting Hadjar or getting rid of him entirely. And based on what we saw right now and Isaac's own tear, I really don't see that happening. And as for Lindblad, he creates a different sort of pressure. He's a year younger than Kimi Antonelli and in that car, he already has 22 points. He's now currently outscoring Oliver Behrman, who everyone really rates as a talent for the future, especially, and a Ferrari hopeful if they do have a vacancy themselves. But he's showing very clearly right now he is not approaching his rookie season with caution. It all stems from Racing Bull's patch around Spa. They only had enough new parts for one car, so management decided that whichever driver qualified higher around the British Grand Prix would get the goods. Lindblad beat Lawson, so therefore got the upgrade for Belgium. Fair cop. The contest hasn't stayed on paper though, because Lawson and Lindblad have yet another tense exchange after their first one in Austria and then going into Les Combes around Spa, they then had another bit of a ding dong. Although the cameras didn't see it thanks to the awkward TV direction of this year's F1 TV. Lawson had climbed to 6th and led the midfield early in the race, but once the Racing Bulls began racing each other, their position became harder to protect. Lindblad finishing 9th and Lawson fell to 12th. Although, importantly, let's remember, with the slower, older car. Now, granted, this does not necessarily prove, so I'll get the spanner out right now, that they are actively fighting for promotion within the Red Bull organisation. It could be a multitude of factors as to why they're fighting one another for these particular positions. But Red Bull does have a tendency, even though it's in a state of flux right now, per Smarco, to treat every single comparison as some kind of an audition. It's something that is going to take a while to try and change. Results are often remembered and if you show any signs of weakness, it just gives yet another reason for you to be not considered for promotion and the other guy to be considered promoted. So, for Liam and Arvid right now, their mission has somewhat changed. Yeah, Nikola is right there in the background and something that's going to be breaking them out in the cold sweat sometimes, but now they've got yet another thing to try and fight. Even though Max Verstappen's future at Red Bull is up for debate and he could technically leave, it's not a guarantee that Max will actively take it. It's a sort of no-man's land. No one really knows what Verstappen's going to do. So, if you're going to be thinking, well, if he's going to stay out of his contract, then what's my purpose right now? I'm going to have to try and prove that Isaac and Max are not the ideal pairing and that it should be Max and me. I think we are going to be seeing more and more clashes between these two because now Limblad's got the bit between his teeth to try and do something with his speed, which will become in turn harder to contain and it's going to make Liam's recovery job much harder to reward. Limblad did have the original mission statement from Horner to try and rebuild some goodwill with the British F1 fandom because admittedly, according to Christian, Red Bull had the tendency of taking away glory from British drivers, having not fielded one since DC in 2008. But as I mentioned earlier, well, Red Bull are sort of going through a bit of a French phase because Hajar, through his own progression, is now starting to clog up the junior categories and it might make some more sense as to why there's only one Red Bull junior in Formula 2 right now. It sort of means it's either Solove or, well, there are F3 candidates, but that's just a couple of years away yet. But for our bit at the very least, how long is it going to take for this ideal pairing to either not become so ideal or for one of them to move on naturally? One year, two years, three years? Never? Then again, there's still a reasonable argument for you to get your phone out again. I may be reading too much into one weekend and one phrase, and team principals do praise drivers after strong races. That's par for the course. Also, Spa rewards straight-line speed and overtaking, and thusly, grid penalties, as I said, aren't as debilitating as some other circuits. Hajar also benefited from two neutralisations and an aggressive strategy. His finish may not necessarily prove, some might say, that he would have fought for the podium in a conventional race, because team orders may come into play here. As in, yeah, it's all very well and good to say, oh yeah, Hajar could have been on the podium, but would he have been on the podium, though? With Leclerc doing his thing and Antonelli doing his thing, Max in P3, you really think you're going to allow those two to fight? Most likely, it would have been a case of Hajar settling for P4, trying to hold off, say, the likes of Hamilton in P5 or something. And also, the phrase ideal pairing may be a tactical one, because Red Bull at the moment needs as much stability as they can get. So, to say that the senior lineup is perfect and they don't want to change it and they're absolutely content and they want to see it grow, that's the best thing they can say right now, after so many staff members leaving for pastures new themselves. But, having said that, though, we might start to see the tides turning, what with the acquisition of the Mercedes talent scout Gwen LeGrew, then, of course, we've got Tom Hart, who was originally going to go to Williams, becoming the successor to GP as Max's race engineer. That, in and of itself, is a nice little coup. As in, oh, thank goodness, somebody from Red Bull is actually going to stay. Yeah, all of those explanations are absolutely valid, and you're right to bring them up, but it still does not explain the six-race streak, nor does it remove the consistency that the Frenchman has been able to show, as well as the gap that he has to the other racing bull drivers. And it also doesn't change Mechie's assessment of his pace within the Belgian Grand Prix, because he has a lot more access to Hagel's data. I don't think he'd be saying that kind of thing lightly. And, most importantly, it doesn't change the choice of words Laurent used. Because Red Bull could have just gone the cookie-cutter route and described Hagel as promising, dependable, improving, but they used the word ideal. That's definitely a choice. Much like how Mechie's made a choice with purpose regarding the future of GP at McLaren, and, oh, he might one day be team principal to try and wrap all the likes of Andreas Stoller. It definitely caught Zach for a loop with that one, that's for sure. But in any case, in Milton Keynes, what he said sets a standard within. Anyone who wants to get a promotion up to the senior team needs to prove to them, without a shadow of a doubt, that the combination of Verstappen and Hajar is the wrong combination. Because Spa was meant to be just a typical controlled, tactical weekend. Because Max was trying to get all the glory to try and calm down the rumours around him. Hajar was going to get the penalty, just see what he can do, maybe a cheeky point or two. Well, he only went and got a cheeky eight. And what he was able to do there, getting his best ever Red Bull racing performance, is now make the junior debate that little bit more tense. And it's going to, I think, have major consequences for that second team. Vcarve was meant to be the place which was more forgiving, nurturing, less volatile, you might say. But if things keep going the way they are right now, I could see Liam and Arvid's relationship breaking down considerably. And it will certainly be nothing like it was with Liam and Isaac. Those two got on really, really well. You didn't really think there was much beef between them, whereas with Arvid and Liam... So yeah, the senior team might get some stability, but at the expense of their junior team. So I really think it's going to be a bit of a question mark at that team. All because Isaac Hajar is somebody Red Bull can no longer ignore. And you shouldn't ignore this video over here, which I think you will enjoy. I'll just go and freshen myself up and I'll be right with you.