Hadjar feared crash amid Red Bull's 'nonsense' Japanese GP struggles

Isack Hadjar revealed he feared an immediate crash at the start of qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix, encapsulating a disastrous and confusing weekend for Red Bull. The Frenchman, who was the team's lead car in eighth, finished a massive 1.2 seconds off pole as the reigning champions were eliminated from Q2 with Max Verstappen and left scrambling for answers.

Why it matters:

Red Bull's dramatic and unexplained loss of performance at a high-speed, high-downforce circuit like Suzuka is a major concern. For a team used to fighting at the front, being mired in the midfield and unable to understand its own car's behavior strikes at the core of its competitive credibility. For Hadjar, a driver fighting to secure his future, such unpredictable machinery undermines confidence and performance at a critical time.

The details:

• Hadjar described a drastic and unsettling change in his car's balance between final practice and qualifying, stating his first lap felt like he was "going to crash straight away" as the car was "sliding everywhere."
• The team appears to have no clear direction to solve its issues. Hadjar bluntly admitted, "What we are saying this weekend makes no sense," highlighting a fundamental lack of understanding within the garage.
• The performance gap was severe, with Hadjar's Q3 time 1.2 seconds slower than polesitter Kimi Antonelli's Mercedes, and four-time champion Max Verstappen shockingly knocked out in Q2.
• Hadjar explained the car's balance is swinging wildly from one extreme to another without warning, forcing drivers to constantly reset their expectations each session.

What's next:

Red Bull faces a formidable challenge in the race, starting from the middle of the pack with cars that have proven unpredictable. The focus will be on damage limitation and gathering data, but with no clear fix in sight, points will be hard-fought. The weekend serves as a stark reminder of the team's current vulnerability and the intense pressure on its drivers to extract performance from an inconsistent package.