Laurent Mekies says Isack Hadjar ‘absolutely nailed’ his Red Bull debut and insists ‘we are in the fight’ Laurent Mekies, Team Principal of Oracle Red Bull Racing, praised Isack Hadjar’s performance after the French driver qualified in the top three on his debut with the team. The result marked a high point for Red Bull during a challenging first weekend of the 2026 season. Despite a gap of 0.785 seconds to pole sitter George Russell, Hadjar impressed in his first qualifying session, particularly as his teammate Max Verstappen was eliminated in Q1 after a crash caused by a locked rear axle. Starting third behind the two Mercedes cars, Hadjar lost a few positions during the race’s first stint. Mekies later confirmed the driver faced a battery issue, which ultimately led to his retirement on Lap 11 as smoke emerged from his RB22. Despite the early exit, Mekies remained optimistic about Hadjar’s overall performance, especially considering the complexities of the new 2026 cars and power units. “He had a fantastic weekend,” Mekies said. “Coming here, he had fairly limited mileage in testing, with a bit of lack of luck there. And he came here from the very first lap in FP1 on Friday at the right pace. We were able to split the testing programme between the cars and get double the amount of information. He went to Qualifying with everything that’s entailed for a first-time Qualifying with these rules. Absolutely nailed it. Put the car in P3, which is probably as high as it could have been on Saturday.” Verstappen, who finished sixth after starting 20th on the grid, acknowledged the team’s progress but noted the gap to Mercedes. Mekies admitted Red Bull was at least competitive with McLaren but struggled to match Ferrari and Mercedes’ pace. “It’s something we are aware of,” he said.#max_verstappen #george_russell #laurent_mekies #isack_hadjar #oracle_red_bull_racing
