Isack Hadjar reflects on his retirement: “The engine blew up after turn 1.”

After getting off to an excellent start in the Australian Grand Prix following his third-place qualifying finish, Isack Hadjar saw his race come to an abrupt end after just a few laps. Suffering from an engine problem, the Red Bull driver was never able to exploit the potential he had shown throughout the weekend.

The Australian Grand Prix ended very early for Isack Hadjar. After an excellent start, the Frenchman was forced to retire on lap 10, his car emitting thick smoke before coming to a halt at the side of the track.

According to the driver himself, it was an engine problem, as he immediately sensed that something was wrong at the start of the race. “I knew the engine had blown up after turn 1. The noise changed completely right after the start,” he told Canal Plus. 

A promising start

Before this incident, Hadjar had made a perfect start to the race. The Red Bull driver made a very good start, immediately finding himself in the leading group. “The only positive thing is that I got off to a great start.”

But very quickly, problems began to arise. The Frenchman first noticed a lack of power, before the engine's behavior became increasingly strange.

“Then I ran out of battery, and the noise… I felt like I was driving a Supercar V8, it was crazy.”

Hadjar explains that he already knew it was only a matter of time before he had to retire. “I knew it was going to break at some point.”

Frustration after a promising weekend

This retirement is all the more frustrating because the pace had seemed solid since the start of the weekend.Hadjar was hoping to replicate the positive feelings observed on Friday, when the car was competitive. “I would have liked the car to perform like it did on Friday, when the pace was good and the engine was running smoothly.”

With the start he had made, the Frenchman even thinks he could have been among the leaders in the early laps. “With the start we got, we could have fought at the front and had some fun with the guys.” But the race ended far too soon. “Above all, I would have liked to have been able to finish the race.”

Forced to watch the rest of the race from the pits, Hadjar is now looking ahead to the next round of the championship.>The French driver will soon have the opportunity to bounce back at the Chinese Grand Prix, after a weekend in Australia that left him feeling unfulfilled… Just like his very first F1 race last year.