{"id":111785,"date":"2025-09-03T15:26:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T15:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/111785\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T15:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T15:26:08","slug":"red-bulls-battle-with-hadjar-shouldnt-have-happened-says-verstappen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/111785\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull’s battle with Hadjar shouldn’t have happened, says Verstappen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen<\/a> has declared that Red Bull<\/a>\u2019s Dutch Grand Prix battle with a Racing Bulls<\/a>\u00a0Formula 1 car \u201cshouldn\u2019t be happening\u201d.<\/p>\n

Verstappen and Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar<\/a> ran third and fourth behind the McLarens during most of the Zandvoort race; both of them ended up on the podium, courtesy of Lando Norris<\/a>\u2019 late-race retirement.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, happy to be on the podium, but in terms of speed it wasn\u2019t good,\u201d Verstappen told Dutch F1 broadcaster Viaplay. \u201cI think it was purely down to qualifying that I was third in the race, because in terms of speed it really wasn\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite finishing the race on soft tyres when the McLarens ran on hard rubber, Verstappen\u2019s fastest lap was 0.650s slower than race winner Oscar Piastri<\/a>\u2019s. \u201cMcLaren<\/a> is on another level,\u201d he rued. \u201cI don\u2019t even compare myself with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verstappen briefly snatched second place from Norris at the start but was subsequently shadowed by Hadjar all along, with the gap between them never exceeding three seconds in green-flag conditions \u2013 hence the four-time world champion\u2019s concerns about his lack of performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole race we were basically fighting with our sister team based on pure pace,\u201d he pointed out. \u201cThat shouldn\u2019t be happening.<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls<\/p>\n

Photo by: Mark Thompson – Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just not good. But in a way, we know that those problems are there in our car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red Bull has regularly struggled to unleash the full potential of its RB21 this year due to narrow set-up windows. In Zandvoort, Verstappen diverged from his rivals on strategy by not running the hard compound in the race, due to that tyre \u2018really feeling terrible\u2019 in Friday practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely no mechanical grip,\u201d the 27-year-old explained. \u201cBut everyone else can drive on that tyre, except us. So that also means that something is just wrong. That\u2019s why I used the soft and medium, those tyres give a bit more mechanical grip in slow corners, where we were struggling a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe car is just not fast enough. I also had to save a lot in those fast corners. While everyone goes through Turns 7 and 8 much faster, I have no grip. That\u2019s obviously not good. Of course, in qualifying it was better over one lap, but this season the car is just not good in the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Verstappen and Red Bull are likely experiencing their first title-less season since 2020, Racing Bulls has already scored 60 points \u2013 the Faenza-based squad\u2019s best tally since its record 2021 campaign.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

At the time, Pierre Gasly<\/a>\u00a0had made a whopping 18 Q3 appearances and registered 12 top-seven finishes, scoring the lion\u2019s share of the team\u2019s 142 points in the standings. But Red Bull was in contention for the title, so the brand\u2019s two outfits weren\u2019t rivalling one another the way they sometimes are this year.<\/p>\n

This is compounded by Red Bull\u2019s second car painfully struggling to record any meaningful results, whoever ends up driving it. Incumbent Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> ended a seven-round point-less streak at Zandvoort, but he consistently lapped one second slower than Hadjar, though traffic did not help the Japanese racer.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Ronald Vording<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

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