Red Bull forced to undo set-up change after Hadjar calls RB22 'undriveable'
Photo: Race Pictures
Henry Eccles is a freelance Formula 1 journalist for GPblog, covering breaking news, live race blogs, and features across the F1 calendar. Since joining in 2026, he has produced high-volume reporting on the sport’s biggest stories, alongside feature pieces including analysis and historical content.
Red Bull is reversing the set-up changes it made to Isack Hadjar's car during Friday's practice at the United States Grand Prix. Technical director Pierre Waché admitted the team took the Frenchman's RB22 in the wrong direction after Hadjar labelled FP2 "a disaster."
Finishing the second practice session in P9 - a whopping 0.931s behind teammate Max Verstappen - Hadjar said his RB22 was "undriveable," particularly when he moved onto the soft tyre compound.
“We had an okay FP1, and then in FP2 I felt okay as well on the medium, even though we changed the car,” Hadjar said. “And the soft, honestly, the car was completely gone for me. So yeah, very difficult to drive.
"I need to turn things around tomorrow, sit down and see what we can do, because the car made a massive step down. We need to bring it back at least to the level it was this morning.”
Pinpointing his struggles with the front end as the sectors went on, Hadjar added: "It's just a disaster. After Sector 1, basically, where I made most of my lap time, from Sector 1 to the end of the lap, I was slower than on the medium.
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"It was just undriveable, and I was losing the front end massively. So we need to have a look, because that's not normal, why there's so much deg on one lap.”
Hadjar surprised by gap to Verstappen
On the other side of the garage, Verstappen did not appear to encounter as many difficulties as his young teammate. Despite a steering issue in FP1, the Dutchman was towards the top of the timesheets in each of Friday's sessions while on a different set up to Hadjar.
“Yeah, if they managed to do it on the other side [of the garage],” Hadjar added. “It's like the temperatures are going sky high, and we're going at the same speed.
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“So we need to tweak something on the car balance, because we're running different stuff. You need to try. But to have such a bad feeling, I'm a bit surprised, to be honest.”
Waché admits Red Bull went the wrong way
Photo: Race Pictures
However, Technical director Waché suggested the set up approach between Hadjar and Verstappen's cars were not completely dissimilar, but admitted Red Bull did go in the wrong direction with regard to the former's RB22.
“Well, I think it's an overall set-up direction that we have to undo, between P1 and P2, and it's what we are working on this evening,” Waché said post-FP2.
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“They are not far away. With this type of layout, you have the full high-speed corner during the Sector 1, after Turn 1, and I think if you overcook the tyre there, after it's more or less finished for the lap.”
Waché also addressed the challenges regarding track surface. Verstappen came into the US GP weekend with scathing criticism towards the bumpy Circuit of the Americas, with owner Bobby Epstein later responding to the Dutchman's outburst.
“As expected it's jumping a lot,” Waché said. “The problem with this type of setup we are using, that is quite not as stiff as last year but not so far, is that the car is not very compliant on these bumps here.
“It's clearly the low speed performance where we are focused on at the moment – low speed is the key for us," Waché concluded.
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