Start from 21st. Finish sixth. Do it with a two-stop strategy you didn’t fully understand until it was already working. That, in a nutshell, was Isack Hadjar‘s Belgian Grand Prix. Red Bull’s team principal Laurent Mekies called it his best race yet, and it’s hard to argue.
The Penalty That Could Have Wrecked His Weekend
A 30-place grid penalty for exceeding power unit component limits meant Hadjar lined up 21st at Spa-Francorchamps. On a circuit where track position is everything and overtaking the 2026 cars is considerably harder than it looks, that should have been a write-off. It wasn’t.
Hadjar got his elbows out immediately, passing multiple cars on lap one alone. Then George Russell‘s first-lap retirement brought out the Safety Car, and Red Bull pounced. They pitted Hadjar twice in two consecutive laps, swapping him from hards to mediums and then straight back to hards. Job done on the mandatory compound rule, minimal time lost, and clean air ahead. Clever? Extremely. Immediately obvious to the driver? Not quite.
“Even I was a little lost at first by those pit stops. After a few laps I understood why we’d made that choice. I was maybe a bit slow on the uptake, I’ll admit.” – Isack Hadjar
Pace That Deserved Better Than Sixth
Here is where the frustration creeps in. The RB22 was genuinely quick at Spa, a circuit nobody expected to suit it. Verstappen confirmed that with a podium finish from second on the grid. Hadjar’s qualifying pace suggested a top-five start was achievable without the penalty, which would have put a podium fight firmly in play.
“Frustrating, because I feel like if I just do the weekend without any penalties, I think we’re fighting for the podium considering the pace.” – Isack Hadjar
Instead, he spent his afternoon scything through traffic, holding off a charging Lando Norris in the closing stages, and setting his fastest lap late in the race. Not a bad consolation, but the gap between what happened and what could have happened is obvious to everyone, Hadjar included.
Growing Evidence of a Serious Talent
Mekies was unambiguous after the race, noting that Hadjar’s pace had been top-three level and that his progress had been consistent all season, not a one-off spike. Former F1 driver Timo Glock went further, suggesting Hadjar is a genuine contender for driver of the year. Given that he has outqualified Verstappen on merit at least once this season and is only 31 points behind him in the standings despite running every race, that is no longer a wild take.
Hungary is next, a circuit Hadjar believes suits Red Bull better than Spa. After Spa proved far more competitive than expected, that assessment carries real weight. With no grid penalty hanging over him, Saturday’s qualifying session becomes the genuine test. He has the pace. Now he needs the clean weekend to prove the Belgian GP was the rule, not the exception.
