Isack Hadjar Is Driving Like He Doesn't Belong at Red Bull

Max Verstappen finished four places ahead of his teammate while driving a full second per lap slower. That's not a compliment to Verstappen.

Max Verstappen qualified fifth and finished fifth. Isack Hadjar qualified ninth and finished ninth. On paper, that's parity. On track, it was a demolition.

Key Finding

Hadjar was nearly a full second slower than Verstappen on the same tyres, same strategy, same Miami heat — and still couldn't overtake anyone.

Key Finding

Hadjar was nearly a full second slower than Verstappen on the same tyres, same strategy, same Miami heat — and still couldn't overtake anyone.

The gap between them wasn't four grid slots. It was 21.7 seconds by the chequered flag and a lap time delta that tells you everything you need to know about where Hadjar sits in this partnership: he was a full second per lap slower than Verstappen across 19 laps on identical Medium tyres. Not a tenth. Not half a second. A full second.

That's not a tyre management issue. That's not traffic. That's a driver who couldn't extract pace from the car even in clean air, on a track where Red Bull clearly had enough performance to finish fifth. Verstappen did it. Hadjar didn't.

The gap grew from the first lap and never stopped

HAD vs VER — gap between them on every lap

Hadjar starts 3.3 seconds behind and loses another 18 seconds over 19 laps — that's pure pace deficit, not strategy.

HAD aheadVER ahead

Final gap: VER ahead by 21.7s.

Key Finding

Hadjar was nearly a full second slower than Verstappen on the same tyres, same strategy, same Miami heat — and still couldn't overtake anyone.

This wasn't a position battle. Hadjar never threatened the car ahead, never made up ground, never showed a flash of the aggression you'd expect from someone fighting to prove they deserve the seat. He held station. That's it.

Meanwhile, Verstappen — starting four places ahead but surrounded by faster machinery — finished exactly where he started because he had the pace to defend. Hadjar had no such margin. He was lucky no one behind him had a working car, because he wasn't going anywhere.

Verstappen's fastest lap was on Lap 19. Hadjar's was Lap 11.

HAD (Lap 11) vs VER (Lap 19) — fastest laps compared

Look at the speed traces through the final sector — Verstappen is carrying more momentum everywhere, especially through the chicanes.

HAD (Lap 11)VER (Lap 19)

Fastest laps: HAD Lap 11, VER Lap 19.

Key Finding

Hadjar was nearly a full second slower than Verstappen on the same tyres, same strategy, same Miami heat — and still couldn't overtake anyone.

The tyre degradation numbers don't save him either. Verstappen's Mediums lost 0.054 seconds per lap. Hadjar's lost 0.008 seconds — effectively nothing. He wasn't managing tyres better. He just wasn't driving them hard enough to make them wear.

And here's the problem for Red Bull: this wasn't a rookie mistake. There was no moment, no lock-up, no track limits violation that cost him the gap. He just drove 19 laps at a pace that wouldn't challenge for a point and called it a Sprint.

Key Finding

Hadjar was nearly a full second slower than Verstappen on the same tyres, same strategy, same Miami heat — and still couldn't overtake anyone.

Canada is next, and it's a circuit where qualifying matters even more than Miami. If Hadjar shows up a second off Verstappen's pace again, Red Bull will have a decision to make — because right now, they're paying for two cars but only one of them is racing.

The data doesn't lie. Hadjar isn't just slower than Verstappen. He's slower in a way that suggests he's not comfortable pushing the car to the limit. And in F1, that's the only place that matters.

Nadia Ferreira

@@nadia_f_racing

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