Isack Hadjar plays down Red Bull’s ‘fastest car’ claims ahead of the United States Grand Prix

By Vancouver Television Sports Desk

Isack Hadjar has dismissed the idea that Red Bull now hold clear superiority heading into the United States Grand Prix, insisting he does not believe the team “have the fastest car” even after Max Verstappen won the last two races.

Speaking on the lead-up to the race at Circuit of The Americas, Hadjar pointed to differences in performance between events. He said Red Bull looked “dominant” in Malaysia, but added that in Singapore it did not appear to be the fastest package on the grid, with Ferrari instead the quickest team based on what he believed he saw from the car’s behaviour and competitive pace.

Hadjar also tried to put his own Singapore difficulties in context. He said technical issues during the weekend prevented him from taking part in Sprint Qualifying, and the team then had to make changes to the power unit, resulting in a pit lane start for the Grand Prix. Despite that setback, he drove back to finish P10.

By contrast, Hadjar said the contrasting outcomes between him and Verstappen did not mean Red Bull had definitively become the benchmark. He rejected suggestions that Verstappen’s wins prove his team-mate has the fastest car now, stating, “No. I don't think we have the fastest car,” and framing his view around Ferrari’s apparent pace in Singapore.

In elaborating on that point, Hadjar described what he felt made the difference in qualifying and race execution in Singapore. He said Verstappen qualified on pole by “half a tenth,” and argued Ferrari’s race performance was affected by tyre availability, specifying that Ferrari “didn’t have new tyres in the race – I mean, not the softs,” which he said had an effect. He also suggested that the Ferrari car was still the quickest in Singapore, adding, “In Singapore, I think [Ferrari] was the fastest car,” and stating he believed Verstappen would have won with more margin “if you put Max in the Ferrari.”

Hadjar then pivoted to looking forward to Texas. He said Singapore was a weekend “where you get a failure in each session,” and said he has focused on moving past the frustration and preparing for a strong result at Circuit of The Americas.

For the United States Grand Prix, Hadjar said Racing Bulls remains confident as a team, but is also aware of its weaknesses. He said the team is still working on the car and expressed a desire for a cleaner run, noting that the last two weekends had been especially frustrating given the car he had been given.

Oscar Piastri, also asked about Red Bull’s standing in the pecking order, took a more overtly performance-upgrade-focused view. He said he believed Red Bull had “definitely taken a pretty big step forward” over the preceding triple header, and pointed to the strength of their upgrades, referencing that Red Bull had taken a double podium in Baku and then won the next two races with Verstappen.

Piastri also discussed Ferrari’s role in Singapore, saying it was not surprising that Ferrari were strong there. He said Ferrari appeared “always the joint-quickest or outright quickest” in corners based on analysis, but suggested they were losing on straights, attributing that to factors such as drag and power.

Looking at the broader arc, Piastri said both teams ahead of them were stronger “for sure” and that, in the last few weeks, Red Bull had become the “most consistently quick car.” He nevertheless added that the challenge appears to rotate each weekend, rather than settling into a single dominant formula across all tracks.

With Hadjar aiming to rebound from a difficult Singapore and Red Bull drawing attention for its recent wins, the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas is set to underline whether Red Bull’s improvements translate into consistently race-winning pace—or whether Ferrari’s apparent Singapore advantage persists when performance is measured again across a different kind of circuit.