Red Bull Boss Explains Tricky Decision After Isack Hadjar Crash

Hadjar brought Red Bull's Tuesday running to an early end on the second day of testing.

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Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has revealed the tricky decision that the team faces after Isack Hadjar's crash late on day two of the first Formula 1 pre-season test.

Teams are running behind closed doors at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as they acclimatize to F1's newest technical regulations, with changes to the power units, aerodynamics and chassis creating an engineering mountain to climb for all 11 teams.

Red Bull is the only team to have run on both days so far, having joined Ferrari on track for the second day in difficult wet conditions, though Hadjar - who had completed 108 laps on Monday with the unofficial fastest time - had an off in the final hour that left the RB22 in the barriers at the final corner with suspected damage.

"Part of the game"

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Such incidents are to be expected with such vast changes to the machinery, and addressing the incident, Mekies explained: "It was very tricky conditions this afternoon, so very unfortunate that it has finished this way.

"It is part of the game. Very tricky, a lot of work to do on many aspects but these sorts of things can happen. "The difficulties today came after a very positive day yesterday in terms of the number of laps Isack could complete in the car and in terms of his learning and development and feedback to the engineers.

"So early days but great energy in the team, great spirits between Max and Isack and the whole team. We just can't wait to have the next possibility to run, but it is something we are trying to analyze."

🔊 El SONIDO del accidente de Hadjar

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Teams are permitted to run on any three days of the five this week, and with Red Bull only having one remaining, the decision on when to next hit the track will be made by committee, though perhaps complicated by the crash sustained by Hadjar and now dictated by component availability.

Asked what the rest of the week had in store for the team based in Milton Keynes, England, Mekies replied: "The checklist is too long to be completed here in Barcelona, so it is going to be a matter of priority and trying to be flexible and adapt the programme as difficulties come, or if you find interesting directions you can pursue.

"The priority right now is to assess the damage and to see what it gives to us in terms of opportunities to run in the next days. We only have one day left to run so we have to play that card carefully. It is an analysis that will take a few hours."

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