Isack Hadjar faces disqualification from Miami GP qualifying over floor breach

Red Bull's Isack Hadjar is set to be disqualified from his ninth-place qualifying result at the Miami Grand Prix after his car's floor was found to breach Formula 1's technical regulations. The rookie, who has struggled with the upgraded RB23 compared to teammate Max Verstappen, will lose his grid position for the Sprint and likely start from the back of the field.

Why it matters:

A disqualification is a significant setback for a rookie driver in a top team, undermining a valuable top-10 qualifying performance and any potential points-scoring opportunity in the Sprint. For Red Bull, it highlights the precision required in building and setting up its complex upgrade package and raises questions about operational consistency between its two cars.

The details:

• Post-qualifying technical checks found the floor board on Hadjar's car protruded 2mm beyond the permitted limit on both the left and right sides, a clear breach of the legality volume rules.
• Technical breaches are typically treated as strict liability offenses, meaning intent or performance advantage is irrelevant—the penalty is almost always disqualification from the session.
• Hadjar was running the team's full upgrade package, identical to Verstappen's, which included revisions to the front of the floor.
• Despite the same hardware, Hadjar described a significant performance gap, calling the car "very hard to drive but very fast" and admitting he couldn't "put it all together" like his teammate.
• He also cited an unspecified straight-line speed deficit on every straight, compounding his difficulties on a low-grip, high-temperature track surface he found "very tricky."

What's next:

Hadjar is summoned to the stewards at 7 AM local time on Sunday for a formal hearing, after which the disqualification is expected to be confirmed. He will start the Miami Grand Prix Sprint from the back of the grid, a major challenge on a circuit where overtaking is difficult. The incident puts immediate pressure on his race weekend and serves as a harsh lesson in the unforgiving precision of F1's technical regulations.