Isack Hadjar Ignites “Nonsense” Debate About Who’s Fastest, Red Bull or Ferrari

Isack Hadjar inadvertently sparked a mini debate that a couple of F1 drivers dismissed as nonsense at the US GP.

>On a track that has historically favored Ferrari, Red Bull eked out a pole and a win for Max Verstappen in Singapore. A back-to-back F1 win for Red Bull has started a chorus about the car being in the faster region along with an already powerful engine.

>The FIA has marked the Red Bull Ford powertrain as the benchmark, even though Mercedes is still seen as the all-rounder, with a top-notch battery as well. Red Bull was ailing a bit on the chassis side, which they seem to have mastered now.

>The upgrade in Baku has paid dividends. It was a struggle for Hadjar, though, especially in Singapore. But the Frenchman feels Red Bull was not the fastest F1 car in Singapore. He signaled that Ferrari was the fastest.

>The F1 team is yet to win an F1 race since the British GP and is termed as fastest by Hadjar, which is in itself a surprise. He feels if Verstappen was driving the Ferrari in Singapore, he would have won by a bigger margin than he did in his Red Bull.

Hadjar Claims Ferrari to be Fastest and Not Red Bull“No, I don’t think we have the fastest car,” said Hadjar to the media at the F1 US GP. “I mean, he [Verstappen] qualified on pole by half a tenth [in Singapore]. Ferrari didn’t have new tires in the race.

>“I mean, not on the Soft, so this has an effect as well. So, he put all the chances on his side, and he made the difference in Q3, and that was enough. I think the car is still very hard to drive.

>“In Malaysia, it was dominant, but I don’t think in Singapore it was the fastest car. That’s what I believe. I think if you put Max in the Ferrari, he would have won the race with more margin. So that’s my opinion. In Singapore, I think it was the fastest car,” summed up Hadjar.

(Photo by Sam Bloxham/LAT Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // SI202610030581 // Usage for editorial use only //The claim from Hadjar received two ‘nonsense’ responses – one from teammate Verstappen and another from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. The Monégasque reckons it is not wise to compare, considering they have not driven each other’s cars.

>Verstappen had similar thoughts, but he felt the media was trying to make it a debate when it needed to be left as an opinion. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, had praise for the job done by Red Bull to deliver with good drivers and leadership.

>Here’s what the F1 drivers said:

Charles Leclerc“Well, first of all, I think it’s nonsense to start saying these kinds of things. I mean, Isack has no idea what kind of car we drive, and I have no idea what kind of car he drives. But anyway, I think it’s such a tight field that it’s very, very difficult for us to predict.

>“Yes, of course, we kind of have an idea of how we will be on this track, but when you are speaking about such fine margins, it relies really on just optimizing your package, and that has a much bigger influence than what we kind of expect in terms of the car.

>“So, I think the only outlier in the last few races is maybe Mercedes, that we expected to be further ahead than they actually were. And if they manage to finally unlock the performance that we kind of had in mind for them in the last few races, then I think they will be further ahead than any others. But otherwise, it’s going to be very tight.”

(Photo by Alex Pantling/LAT Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // SI202609260177 // Usage for editorial use only //Max Verstappen“Yeah, I don’t know. Fun debate. Yeah, I mean we’re stressing about something that doesn’t matter, right? Yeah, he said it, but okay, we’ll let him say that, right? I mean you shouldn’t always need to put it forward to the other driver or the other team, like whatever.

>“Like, you’re constantly trying to agitate people with it instead of just letting it be. That’s why I normally do. I’m like, whatever. Life goes on. Tomorrow’s another day. They [Ferrari] were very fast.

>“It was a good quali, and I am never going to say that it’s anything special because it can always be better. But yeah, that felt good. Yeah, I mean, that felt good with my car. It’s impossible for me to know or say how good a Ferrari is because I’ve not driven that car. So, that’s why these debates are just nonsense.”

Oscar Piastri“I mean, I think Red Bull definitely took a pretty big step forward over the last triple header. I think whatever upgrades they put on the car in Baku were very strong. Obviously, they had a double podium there and won the next two races with Max. So, I think it wasn’t a surprise that Ferrari were very strong in Singapore.

>“I think on the data analysis, they’re always the quickest or joint-quickest or outright quickest in basically every corner this year. But they lose on all the straights, whether that’s from drag or power, I don’t know. But, yeah, you would expect – or certainly we expected – Ferrari to be the benchmark in Singapore, but we’ve expected them to be the benchmark at other circuits and it’s not turned out to be the case.

>“I think they’re very strong. I think clearly Red Bull was very strong…  Both stronger than us for sure! So, yes, I think over the last few weeks Red Bull has definitely become, I would say, the most consistently quick car. But I think each weekend the challenges are kind of rotating.””