Hadjar’s Zandvoort Friday turns fraught as Racing Bulls hit the engine limit — and the curfew
Racing Bulls spent Friday night deep in the spanners at Zandvoort, and Isack Hadjar will carry the receipt into the rest of the Dutch Grand Prix weekend.
After a messy pair of practice sessions, the FIA confirmed Hadjar has taken his fourth and final penalty-free allocation of multiple power unit elements ahead of FP3 — the internal combustion engine, turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K — plus another exhaust. In short: the 20-year-old is now one failure away from grid penalties for the rest of 2025.
The rookie’s day started decently enough with P12 in FP1, but it unraveled in the afternoon. He never logged a time in FP2, crawling on his out-lap before pulling over, which triggered a Virtual Safety Car. Hadjar said the trouble had been brewing from the morning.
“We had sensor issues in the PU in FP1,” he explained. “We decided to change the battery, the PU. Then going out again in FP2, obviously I went out a bit delayed. The team was not happy with the way the battery was operating, so they asked me to stop. That was it.”
To get ahead of the gremlins, Racing Bulls executed a wholesale overnight change — battery, ICE and associated components — and even broke curfew to ensure the VCARB02 would be ready for Saturday. The move resets confidence, if not the ledger.
For 2025, each driver is permitted to use four of each main power unit component without penalty. Hadjar is now on his final free unit across the ICE, turbo, MGU-H and MGU-K. If any of those requires a fifth, he’ll be staring at the sort of penalties that tend to sink Sundays before they start. He’s also onto his sixth exhaust of a permitted eight.
It’s a rough way to spend a Friday at a circuit as punishing as Zandvoort, where track time matters and the walls feel close. Still, Hadjar cut a calm figure about his qualifying prep.
“Usually by the end of FP3, I feel ready to go to qualifying, so I think with only two free practice sessions, it will be enough,” he said. “Fortunately, we can still have a good look at what Liam did.”
That last point is important. Data from the sister car will be doing heavy lifting for setup direction — no small thing at a venue where confidence over the crests can swing a lap by tenths. The team will hope Friday’s firefight contains the problem rather than just masks it.
The real test comes in the first runs of FP3: clean installation laps, systems checks, and then a step into quali sims without another hiccup. If the car behaves, Hadjar can still rescue rhythm and form for Q1. If it doesn’t, Zandvoort’s punishment will be swift.
Bigger picture? Racing Bulls will be keen to ensure this isn’t the start of a reliability trend. Burning through allocations by late August is rarely by design. With the season entering its decisive phase, the last thing a rookie needs is to be chasing a setup while glancing nervously at the reliability dashboard.
For now, the numbers are simple: four key power unit elements, all at their final free allocation. One more failure, and Hadjar’s weekend strategy will be dictated by the stewards’ ledger as much as by outright pace. Not the headline he wanted, but not a lost cause either — provided Saturday starts, and finishes, without a marshal waving him to a stop.
