Hadjar hunts answers after Red Bull set-up change backfires in Austin

Isack Hadjar is searching for a way to recover after a set-up change left his Red Bull Racing difficult to drive in practice for the United States Grand Prix. The Frenchman said the car’s performance dropped sharply in the second session, with rapidly overheating front tyres ruining his soft-tyre run.

Hadjar had felt reasonably positive after FP1, despite ending the session 14th. He chose a different set-up direction for FP2, expecting to make progress, but instead found the car markedly harder to handle. The change appeared manageable on medium tyres; on softs, he said, the balance deteriorated badly.

Soft tyres exposed a major balance problem

Hadjar’s qualifying simulation fell apart, leaving him almost a second behind team-mate Max Verstappen at the end of the day. He said the car lost front-end grip and that his lap times began to suffer after the opening sector.

The problem was especially pronounced through the high-speed corners. Hadjar reported that the front tyres overheated and degraded so quickly that he was slower over the remainder of the lap than he had been on the medium compound. He was surprised by the scale of the drop and said the team needed to investigate why the tyres were suffering so much over a single lap.

Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache pointed to the layout of the Circuit of the Americas as a factor. The opening sector’s fast corners put the tyres under heavy demand, he said, and overheating them there could compromise the rest of the lap.

For more on the Austin venue, see our COTA circuit guide and United States GP track and strategy preview.

Hadjar wants to restore the FP1 feeling

Verstappen, by contrast, described the early signs from the car as broadly positive, while noting that Red Bull still needed to improve its balance between slower and faster corners. His comments offered Hadjar some reassurance that the car could be made to work, but the two drivers had tried different things.

Hadjar said the team would review the data and adjust the balance before qualifying, which begins parc fermé conditions. His immediate target is to return the car to the level he felt it had reached in the opening session. The team must also address the temperature issue: Hadjar said the tyres were running exceptionally hot even though the cars were travelling at similar speeds through those corners.

The scale of the setback leaves Red Bull with a clear task before qualifying: find a balance that gives Hadjar front-end confidence without sacrificing the tyres early in the lap.