“I knew this guy would be a pain in the a***”: Hadjar’s slog from pits to points | Formula 1

Isack Hadjar had a stressful race but was rewarded with a point after slogging his way through the field from the pit lane.

[The Red Bull driver lined up at the pit exit ahead of the two Aston Martins. However Fernando Alonso overtook him at the end of lap one:

Lap: 1/62 HAD: 1’54.461
Hadjar I have so much fucking lag, I’m really slow in the straights
Wood Yeah, copy, I’ll come to you.
Lap: 2/62 HAD: 1’40.919
Wood Isack, the recommendation is lower gears when you can take them, lower gears when you could take them.
Lap: 4/62 HAD: 1’41.280
Hadjar I have zero brakes. I have no brakes in turn seven, turn eight.
Lap: 6/62 HAD: 1’41.043
Hadjar There’s something wrong with the rotary, it’s like fucking sticky What happened to the wheel?
Wood I don’t know, I’ll find out.
Wood You’re doing a good job of managing the temperatures. If overtake’s on, you can use the brakes, if overtake’s on.
Lap: 7/62 HAD: 1’41.043
Hadjar I have zero power, like, the power is so inconsistent lap by lap, like I just don’t get it.
Wood Yeah, I see the different deployments at turn seven this lap.
Wood Engine 11 position 7, to help the SOC. Engine 11, position 7.

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Hadjar spotted the Virtual Safety Car was about to be deployed when Gabriel Bortoleto pulled over. He also told his team their power strategy was making it difficult for him to overtake:

Lap: 8/62 HAD: 1’58.722
Hadjar It’s going to be a VSC, surely.
Wood Copy, I’ll keep you updated.
Hadjar If only I just had a bit of power going into turn seven, I would happily overtake, but it’s what you guys want.
Wood We’re preparing the battery for that, we’re preparing the battery for that.
Wood VSC, VSC. Slow button on, slow button on. So we’re preparing the battery so you can use it when you want, we are preparing the battery for that.
Wood Stay out. Stay out. Stay out. Okay, we’re not expecting this to be much longer. VSC ending, slow button off. Slow button off.

Hadjar passed Alonso and Perez immediately after the restart:

Lap: 9/62 HAD: 1’42.598
Wood Strat six when you can.
Wood Good job.
Lap: 10/62 HAD: 1’39.236
Hadjar Yeah, [unclear] vibrations from the car.
Wood Copy, straight line or cornering?
Hadjar Everywhere.
Wood Copy.
Hadjar Mainly straight line.
Hadjar And also mainly sector three, back down the main straights is quite bad.
Wood Copy
Lap: 14/62 HAD: 1’39.824
Hadjar Mate the tyres, they don’t cope with temperatures, it’s terrible.
Lap: 15/62 HAD: 1’40.043
Wood Copy, mate.
Lap: 16/62 HAD: 1’39.221
Wood Lindblad behind with overtake. Boost is available to defend.
Hadjar Yeah, front-left is a bit damaged. I was braking on the bumps overtaking. So the front-left collapsed.
Wood Okay, we’ll monitor it mate, we will monitor it. Keep going for now.

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Hadjar caught a huge snap of oversteer between turns 18 and 19:

Lap: 18/62 HAD: 1’39.025
Hadjar What the fuck is that? I nearly crashed.
Wood Copy.
Wood Hamilton on medium tyre, 39.1, your last lap. 38.7.
Lap: 19/62 HAD: 1’39.171
Wood You’re doing a good job with these tyres, despite the traffic you’re doing really good job.
Wood Flap update when you can.
Hadjar Yeah, happy.
Hadjar You know what, let’s go two clicks down.
Lap: 23/62 HAD: 1’40.073
Hadjar Fucking hell, my rear tyres.

Having passed Alexander Albon and Arvid Lindblad with little difficulty, Hadjar spent many laps stuck close behind Franco Colapinto. He wasn’t able to pass the Alpine until it retired on lap 29:

Lap: 24/62 HAD: 1’40.429
Wood Yeah, you can press whole straight here, you could press whole straight here. Or you could press 13 to 14 and 14 to 16
Hadjar What’s the better mode for that? For turn seven.
Hadjar Mode eight, mode eight.
Hadjar Oh my god, mate. Yeah, the rear… I need a break. Oh my God.
Wood Yeah, manage them through this section.
Hadjar I knew this guy was going to be a pain in the arse.
Wood Yeah.
Wood B-Bal six to look up to the rears, b-bal six to give the rears a break.
Hadjar Er, what was that on the straight? Where is the power?
Wood It was a [unclear] we just need boost, exit seven next lap, we need boost exit seven next lap, that’s to manage the SOC.

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Hadjar ran long on his set of medium compound tyres at the start of the race:

Lap: 25/62 HAD: 1’40.434
Wood So five seconds boost here.
Hadjar Can you see these snaps on entry? What a joke! It’s un-driveable. Un-driveable.
Wood B-bal six…
Hadjar
And the engine braking is freaking out!
Wood B-bal six to look after the rear for now, B-bal six. Engine 11 position 8, engine 11 position eight.
Hadjar Ah, it’s too many. Too many.
Lap: 26/62 HAD: 1’40.316
Wood You’re doing a good job [with] these tyres, they are coming down.
Hadjar No they’re not. [Unclear]
Hadjar Let’s take out three clicks next run, please. What a joke.
Wood Copy down three, and boost button here for SOC management, boost button here for SOC management.
Lap: 27/62 HAD: 1’39.956
Wood I know it doesn’t feel like it, but the rears have come down two degrees over the last couple of laps.
Hadjar Come on, man! Do you see this entry?
Wood Yeah, I know.
Hadjar Look at all the snaps.
Hadjar [Unclear] or I had an upshift. Something weird happened after 13.
Wood Copy, out of 13. Okay, boost here for SOC management, boost here for SOC management, looking into upshift. You’ve got diff exit three or diff exit four available to you.
Lap: 28/62 HAD: 1’39.477
Hadjar Copy. We don’t think it’s going to be better once we pit? Or do we think that’s it for the tyres?
Wood We’re just monitoring gaps behind as well for people who have boxed. And your tyre choice pre-race was what we think.
Hadjar I don’t understand, man.
Wood So what you thought would be the best compound, we see it in data?
Hadjar Yeah, of course.

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Red Bull gave Hadjar regular instructions on when to use his boost:

Lap: 29/62 HAD: 1’39.748
Hadjar For sure it’s not the white one!
Wood And boost button here please, boost button here, SOC management.
Hadjar Yeah, my tyres are coming back again.
Wood Yeah, copy that mate, copy that mate. We are monitoring track position as well.
Hadjar Yeah, yeah, I know.
Lap: 30/62 HAD: 1’40.236
Wood We need to boost here, boost here
Hadjar May be a VSC.
Wood Copy
Lap: 31/62 HAD: 1’40.471
Wood Boost available, boost available. Again.
Lap: 32/62 HAD: 1’38.910
Wood Gasly behind, he’s on a scrubbed soft.
Wood Boost here, boost here.
Hadjar Yeah, [unclear] my rears.

Hadjar finally pitted just after half-distance. Despite having reduced his front wing angle at his pit stop he still found his car’s balance was prone to oversteer:

Lap: 33/62 HAD: 1’46.564
Wood Press boost here, press boost here. And boost again and box this lap, box, box.
Wood Box, box.
Hadjar Pit lane.
Lap: 34/62 HAD: 1’55.730
Wood Strat 12 in the pit lane, strat 12 in pit lane.
Lap: 38/62 HAD: 1’51.226
Hadjar Yeah I need to close the diff at high speed.
Wood Display five, position six, display five, position six.
Hadjar Mate it’s like I have so much front in this car, even with everything closed.
Lap: 39/62 HAD: 2’01.119
Hadjar Can we close the diff even more?
Wood High-speed diff, yeah.
Hadjar Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Wood Display five, position eight. Display five, position eight for high speed diff. And then entry nine on the rotary, entry nine on the rotary, push toggle currently enabled.
Wood Ok so race update, car ahead Ocon, he’s on the medium tyre with Bearman ahead of him, both medium. You’re currently P13, Gasly on scrub soft P10. He was high 37s on lap time
Lap: 40/62 HAD: 1’36.525
Hadjar I’m struggling with braking efficiency, like big brakings, with no bite.
Wood Copy.

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Hadjar completed his climb into the points by passing Oliver Bearman on lap 54 and Pierre Gasly four laps later:

Lap: 45/62 HAD: 1’37.448
Hadjar I don’t know who glued the fucking switches, but wow.
Lap: 52/62 HAD: 1’36.885
Wood Boost is available if you need to catch up.
Lap: 53/62 HAD: 1’37.784
Wood Mode eight, mode eight. Recommend B-bal six for overtake.
Lap: 54/62 HAD: 1’36.965
Wood Press and hold, whole straight.
Wood Next up, points, let’s get him.
Wood Mode six until we catch him, mode six until we catch him.
Lap: 55/62 HAD: 1’36.534
Wood Eight laps to go. Full push.
Lap: 57/62 HAD: 1’37.743
Wood Mode eight now, mode eight now.
Lap: 58/62 HAD: 1’36.731
Wood Alright, Russell’s stuck ahead, let’s try and catch him.
Wood Engine seven position one, engine seven position one.
Lap: 59/62 HAD: 1’36.885
Wood Four laps.
Lap: 60/62 HAD: 1’36.527
Wood So just lift off at seven, just managing some issues here, lift off in seven.
Wood Strat 11. We lift off into 16 as well, so it’s one, seven, 16 until the end please.
Wood Copy.

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As Hadjar’s race-leading team mate gained on him, Red Bull were quick to instruct him to move out of the way, even when Verstappen was still some distance behind:

Lap: 61/62 HAD: 1’36.676
Wood Isack, so Max, nine seconds behind, we’ll let Max pass, Max nine seconds behind, let him pass before turn 16. Max, nine seconds behind, let him pass before turn 16.
Hadjar He’s, so far away, mate! I can’t just cruise around!
Wood Okay, keep on top of lift-off.
Lap: 62/62 HAD: 1’40.757
Wood Big lift-off at seven, big lift-off turn seven.
Hadjar [Unclear].
Wood This is the last lap. This is last lap.
Wood Lift off 60. Slow button on, slow button on. Chequered flag. Mate, everything thrown at you this weekend. Great job. Great fight to get into the points. That’s a P10, not where we want to be but, you can take whatever you can from this weekend with everything that was thrown at you. And a big thanks to the boys for putting the car back together so many times.
Chequered flag
Hadjar And to cap it off, I need to do a gear sync. Nah I’m just kidding. Ha!
Wood Okay, so push the corners and just slow in the straights, push corners, slow in the straights and pick up on the way in please, lots of pick up on the way.
Mekies Well done, Isack. Mega pace, you should be proud. You made it through, and the pace was mega. You will see when you come back.

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Original source “I knew this guy would be a pain in the a***”: Hadjar’s slog from pits to points | Formula 1

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