Hadjar claims podium in Monaco after a dramatic weekend: 'I had completely lost the confidence to come back'

That sentence sums up the weekend better than any statistic. Hadjar started Monaco with a crash, then fought back mentally and technically, and ended up on the podium at a circuit that forgives no mistakes.

The race itself was anything but straightforward. Already in the opening phase, between laps ten and fifteen, Hadjar faced major issues. On a circuit where every centimeter counts and the guardrails sit right next to the track, that’s the worst thing that can happen to a driver. "If there’s one circuit where you don’t want that, it’s here. It was incredibly challenging to drive sixty laps like that."

Hadjar drove the entire race with a car that didn’t behave the way he wanted. He had to constantly compensate, turn harder into the corners than usual, and rely on instinct where another driver might have driven on feel. "Even at the end I still had a lack of power at the restart. I’ve never had to steer so hard through the corners."

The technical challenges during the race were significant, but the mental blow from the crash in FP1 may have been even greater. A crash in Monaco, on a circuit without run-off areas and with guardrails right next to the track, undermines a driver’s confidence in a way that’s hard to recover from. Hadjar admits that after the crash he had lost belief. "I no longer had the confidence to come back."

The fact that he did it anyway says something about his character. In his rookie Formula 1 season, Hadjar is increasingly showing that he’s not only fast but also resilient. Monaco may well have been the strongest proof of that so far. A crash on Friday, drivability issues in the race, and still a podium. For a young driver still building his reputation, this is the kind of weekend that can define a career.