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Isack Hadjar has admitted he agrees with both of the significant penalties he received during the Canadian Grand Prix, delivering yet another characteristically candid self-assessment — even as he secured his best result of the season in Red Bull colours.
Hadjar had appeared genuinely competitive throughout the build-up to race day in Montreal. He looked strong across most sessions, but when the lights went out on Sunday, his pace deserted him relative to the frontrunners. The Frenchman was left searching for answers after the flag.
"I don't mind the penalties, I think they're fair," he told select media, including RacingNews365, after the race. "It's just that I don't really understand where the pace went, because I really felt like I was struggling a lot out there. So yeah, on Saturday I felt great in the car, and now it's very hard to drive."
Despite those difficulties, Hadjar ultimately salvaged fifth place — his strongest finish in Formula 1 to date — aided in no small part by George Russell's retirement and a strategic nightmare that derailed both McLaren drivers. For more on how McLaren's afternoon unravelled, Oscar Piastri's candid verdict makes for difficult reading.
The race was far from clean for Hadjar. He was first handed a 10-second time penalty after changing direction too many times while defending against Charles Leclerc, a move that produced a frightening near-miss along the back straight, with the Monegasque driver pushed virtually onto the grass at over 200 mph.
Shortly afterwards, a 10-second stop/go penalty followed for failing to slow under yellow flags — a far more costly sanction in terms of race time, but one Hadjar accepted without protest.
The altercation with Leclerc while the pair were fighting for fourth place was the more dramatic of the two incidents, and Hadjar was under no illusions about his culpability.
"I was too harsh. Honestly, if anything, it wasn't even on purpose. I just got confused about where he was heading, so I didn't mean to send him onto the grass," the Red Bull driver explained. "Obviously, he's a very clean driver. So if anything, I just apologised, because it was a bit stupid."
The apology was swift and sincere — a reflection of the self-critical streak that has become something of a trademark for Hadjar in his debut season. It's a quality he has shown throughout the Montreal weekend; heading into race day, he had already been openly critical of his own performance after qualifying, admitting he was not delivering at the level he expected of himself.
For all the turbulence, fifth place represents a meaningful step forward for the 20-year-old. The result was admittedly shaped by the misfortune of others, but surviving a chaotic, penalised afternoon in the points — and at the sharp end of them — is a marker of resilience. The questions over race pace, however, are ones Hadjar and Red Bull will need to answer sooner rather than later.
He’s a software engineer with a deep passion for Formula 1 and motorsport. He co-founded Formula Live Pulse to make live telemetry and race insights accessible, visual, and easy to follow.