How the faster Hadjar helped Verstappen to second place in Baku

Max Verstappen's charge from eighth to second in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix looked like another display of opportunistic racecraft. But for a significant part of the opening stint, he was not even the fastest Red Bull on track.

The Frenchman had qualified an impressive fourth on his return to Formula 1 action in Baku, but an early team order moved Verstappen ahead on Lap 7 as the four-time World Champion recovered from his compromised qualifying.

Then his Medium tyres stopped cooperating.

Verstappen's Medium tyre became the problem

Verstappen had started on the C4 Medium, the same compound used by race leader George Russell, while Hadjar and Piastri were running the softer C5.

Practice had suggested there was relatively little separating the two compounds over a stint, with low degradation making both realistic race tyres. Our pre-race strategy analysis even identified the Soft as a genuine option for a long opening run.

But following closely behind Piastri changed the equation.

The dirty air from the McLaren reduced Verstappen's available grip, forcing him to lean harder on a Medium tyre that was already more difficult to switch on.

"I'm not sure these mediums are very good," he reported.

Verstappen later described the stint as one of "surviving", and his pace began to fade relative to Hadjar.

Hadjar had the pace, but did not demand the position

By around Lap 20, the situation had effectively reversed.

Hadjar's Soft tyres were working well and he was closing onto the back of Verstappen, at one point estimating that he could lap two or three tenths faster.

His radio messages became increasingly pointed.

"Tell him to keep pushing," Hadjar told Red Bull, later adding: "I have pace, just in case."

Red Bull eventually allowed the pair to race, and Hadjar even looked towards Verstappen's inside at Turn 1.

But crucially, he never aggressively pushed for the team to reverse its earlier swap.

That restraint would become important.

Red Bull was thinking beyond the first stint

On the surface, allowing Hadjar through appeared logical.

He had the faster tyre, Verstappen was struggling behind Piastri and Russell was disappearing up the road. By half distance, the Mercedes driver had established a lead approaching 10 seconds.

But Red Bull was looking at what would happen after the pit stops.

Hadjar and Piastri had started on Softs and would eventually need to move onto the slower Medium compound. Verstappen, having started on the Medium, could finish the race on the quicker Soft.

That tyre offset was likely to make Verstappen the faster Red Bull when it mattered most.

Hadjar understood it too.

"I knew it wouldn't change my race because anyway he was going to finish the race on the soft tyres," he explained afterwards.

His target had effectively become Piastri and third place rather than his team-mate.

The Safety Car proved the logic

Alex Albon's crash on Lap 31 brought out the Safety Car and gave Red Bull the opportunity it had been waiting for.

The team executed a clean double-stack, putting Verstappen onto the Soft while Hadjar switched to the Medium.

Because Verstappen had remained ahead during the first stint, Red Bull did not need to reorganise its cars after the restart.

That mattered immediately.

Verstappen attacked Piastri and took second place, giving himself a clear track from which to chase Russell. Hadjar remained in the podium fight and ultimately moved into third after Piastri's mistake at Turn 1.

Had Red Bull swapped its drivers earlier, it may simply have needed to reverse them again once Verstappen was on the faster compound, potentially costing valuable time just as the race restarted.

Instead, the team had its fastest car in the right position at exactly the right moment.

Hadjar's race showed why the decision worked

The final stint removed any doubt over which tyre combination was stronger.

Verstappen came alive on the Soft and rapidly reduced Russell's advantage, eventually finishing just 0.1 seconds behind the Mercedes after a dramatic run to the line. :chatgpt-content-reference{index="0"}

Hadjar, meanwhile, could not maintain the same pace on the Medium. Despite spending most of the closing laps in clear air, he fell substantially behind the leading pair.

He still secured third, completing an excellent comeback weekend after missing the previous three Grands Prix through injury. :chatgpt-content-reference{index="1"}

The tyre split had therefore played out almost exactly as Red Bull anticipated.

Could Verstappen have won from higher on the grid?

The obvious question is whether Verstappen's second place represented a victory lost in qualifying.

He had shown serious speed by topping FP3, only for engine trouble and yellow flags to contribute to his eighth-place starting position. Russell, by contrast, produced a dominant pole lap and controlled the opening half of the Grand Prix. :chatgpt-content-reference{index="2"}

Verstappen was not convinced starting second would necessarily have changed the result.

Even with clear air, Russell's Mercedes appeared to have enough underlying pace to control the race. The late gap also slightly exaggerated how close the contest had become, with Russell encountering an issue as he accelerated towards the finish.

Red Bull's final major upgrade package of 2026 clearly helped the RB22 become a genuine factor in Baku, but Mercedes remained the benchmark.

Hadjar played the team game perfectly

The most interesting element of Red Bull's race was therefore not Verstappen's recovery itself, but how Hadjar handled being temporarily faster than his team-mate.

He had enough pace to justify asking for the place. He made Red Bull aware of it. But he also recognised that overtaking Verstappen would probably offer only a short-term gain before the tyre strategies reversed.

Hadjar ultimately took third. Verstappen was left in position to attack Russell on the faster tyre and came within a fraction of stealing the victory.

Red Bull had several opportunities to complicate its own race.

Instead, it kept the bigger picture in focus.

Hadjar may have been the faster Red Bull during the middle of the first stint, but by staying behind, he helped ensure Verstappen was the faster Red Bull when it mattered most.