Hadjar Says Red Bull Starts 'Not Working' After Barcelona Stalls
Red Bull says a very narrow new power‑unit operating window is causing inconsistent launches and the team faces pressure to widen that window or change its procedure.
Overview
- Isack Hadjar publicly demanded an urgent fix after his Barcelona start stalled twice and dropped him from sixth to the back of the pack before he recovered to sixth.
- Hadjar told media the start procedure is too precise for a human to hit consistently and said he cannot be “0.0001%” exact every time.
- Team boss Laurent Mekies acknowledged the problem and linked it to the RB22 power unit having a very narrow usable window, calling the issue part of a year‑one development learning curve.
- Rivals such as Mercedes have tightened their start procedures and delivered cleaner launches, leaving Red Bull at a practical performance disadvantage at lights out.
- The issue has clear race consequences because poor launches turn strong qualifying results into recovery drives and increase internal pressure on Red Bull to find a technical or procedural remedy quickly.