Dennis and Hadjar receive compliments from Red Bull management: 'Very good'

At Red Bull Racing, they are happy with the performances of Jake Dennis and Isack Hadjar. The two finished 16th and 17th respectively, but Christian Horner does not look too much into that.

"I actually thought they did very very well, working to the programmes that they were working with. With the fuel loads and engine settings that they were operating to, I thought they acquitted themselves extremely well," Horner said during the press conference after the first free practice.

"I think for Jake, a massive step from a Formula E car to Formula One Power and was quite telling that the first adjustment that he needed to make was to tighten his crash helmet due to the speed that he was achieving. I thought both did a great job. Very useful for us to to compare the virtual world that these guys have been driving in with Isack and Jake doing a lot of simulator running this year to correlate that with the real world, so a really useful exercise and a great opportunity for them to get a run out in a Grand Prix car."

How much pressure was on Dennis and Hadjar? "Well a huge amount because they both knew that if they binned it, they'd never be asked to drive it again. That's a pressure in itself but they both acquitted themselves very well gave very clear feedback. It was useful not just for this race but for future projects," Horner explained.

Marko also satisfied

Marko revealed to ORF that he was also satisfied. "Jake Dennis is not a junior, he is relatively high in his 20s, but he is our main simulator driver. It was important that he could compare sim with reality. And you can see from him that he obviously has much more experience," said the 80-year-old Austrian who also commented on the performance of 19-year-old Hadjar. "He was only a tenth slower until the last lap. Then a dangerous situation arose with the Aston Martin. But he also did his job well."