From Zandvoort high to Monza headache: Hadjar braced for pit-lane start after PU change
Seven days ago, Isack Hadjar climbed onto his first Formula 1 podium at Zandvoort and looked every bit the rookie on the rise. This weekend at Monza, he’ll likely be watching the opening lap from the wrong end of the pit lane.
Racing Bulls are set to change “everything” in Hadjar’s hybrid power unit, a wholesale swap that would trigger a pit-lane start once confirmed by the FIA. He went into Saturday knowing it was coming — and he didn’t sugar-coat how that felt.
“I hate going into qualifying knowing that anyway I’m starting last,” he said after Q1. “I like having pressure going into qualifying and this was just wrong.”
His Saturday unravelled early. Hadjar suffered his first Q1 exit of the year, classified 16th, with the lap build-up turning spiky when Carlos Sainz muscled for track position on the out-lap. The Frenchman bristled at the Williams driver’s tactics, saying Sainz was “playing around, trying to make my life difficult.” It didn’t cost him a place in Q2 — the engine change already had — but the mood was set.
Monza’s long straights promise overtakes, but you still need the right car in the right DRS train at the right time. Hadjar likes the VCARB 02’s underlying pace, but he wasn’t pretending miracles are on the menu.
“If I’m starting in the top 10, we have a shot at points,” he said. “But we can’t overtake 10 cars on pure pace and with a good strategy. It doesn’t happen.”
Up front, there was no such gloom. Max Verstappen put Red Bull Racing on pole, pipping Lando Norris and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri as the orange-and-blue battle moved to Ferrari’s backyard. Charles Leclerc will launch fourth for Ferrari, with George Russell and teenager Kimi Antonelli lining up fifth and sixth for Mercedes in a tidy day for Brackley. Gabriel Bortoleto impressed in seventh for Sauber, ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin. Yuki Tsunoda starts ninth in the second Red Bull, while Lewis Hamilton will have work to do from 10th in the other Ferrari.
Behind them, Haas rookie Oliver Bearman continues to look comfortable at this level in P11, with Nico Hülkenberg 12th for Sauber. Sainz and Alex Albon will share row seven for Williams, Esteban Ocon slots his Haas into 15th, then comes Hadjar. Lance Stroll’s tricky season rolls on in 17th for Aston Martin, with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly 18th and 19th respectively — though Gasly’s evening got longer when Alpine were referred to the stewards for failing to cover his car two hours after Q3. Liam Lawson will start 20th in the other Racing Bulls.
For Hadjar, the task is simple and unpleasant: survive the traffic jam, thread his way past the backmarkers, and hope the strategy window and Safety Car lottery fall his way. The rookie’s racecraft has been sharp this season — last weekend’s Zandvoort podium didn’t come by accident — but Monza is rarely generous when you’re climbing from the cellar. A clean launch from the pit lane, an early undercut on the midfield squabble, and some elastic fuel and tyre windows might at least put him in the same postcode as the points if the race breaks his way.
Racing Bulls, for their part, will want a cleaner weekend on the other side of the garage too. Lawson’s pace hasn’t matched Hadjar’s over one lap and the team is still chasing a consistent window for the VCARB 02 at low downforce. If the car’s straight-line efficiency translates in traffic, there’s a chance to rescue something. If not, it’s a long Sunday of data-gathering before the flyaways.
It’s a harsh comedown for a 20-year-old who only just stood on an F1 rostrum. But it’s also part of the education. Hadjar doesn’t lack confidence or feel for a race. He just needs the starting position to match it. Monza won’t be the day for that. The next one might.
