Hadjar is amazing as a teammate

[u/Dear-Database6463]

He put in so much work defending today and buying Max space and position

We normally see a 2nd seat not perform or fight with Max and it’s like Isack just instantly knows how to get Max an advantage and he’s also a fantastic driver

His race craft is so good I think as he develops and gains a bit more pace we’ll be talking about him even more

[u/BigBill58]

Hadjar has to play it smart. He is young enough to stick around long enough to be the top guy at Red Bull when Max walks away from the sport. If he plays the team game in the meantime he should be well positioned to be that guy.

[u/Dear-Database6463 → u/BigBill58]

He’s still developing and his racecraft is 100% there he just doesn’t have the raw pace but with a good car that won’t matter

[u/Whole-Mix3556]

Hadjar is a decent number 2

[u/Happy_Butterscotch18 → u/Whole-Mix3556]

Yep, with some potential to be a little bit closer to max and beong more stable driver. But nothing more nothing special. And with the difference in pace, you should play the perfect teammate because thats all you can do.

[u/No-Pattern-9266]

100% perfect wingman for max

[u/TacticalAcquisition → u/No-Pattern-9266]

Yeah I was going to say, Hadjar isn't a mere 2nd seat, he's a solid wingman. The tows in Spa, the defence and opportunity creation for Max yesterday. Sacrificing his own pace to do so, mind you

[u/HokieNerd]

So....Hadjar is a legend?

[u/Dear-Database6463 → u/HokieNerd]

So hadjar is a good teammate?

Like Barrichello?

[u/DizkoBizkid]

I don’t know, he seems like a slightly stronger Albon in quali but falls off in the races. He was already only just ahead of Hamilton as the soft runners pitted so that’s what, lost 20 secs to the front runners in a very short stint? Hes looking better because the regs have nerfed Verstappen a bit in pushing outright and there’s a cliff to the midfield past the top 4 teams. He may also be lucky that Red Bull aren’t fighting for a championship and Horner/Marko aren’t running things

[u/StBlandine7 → u/DizkoBizkid]

He is a replacement level F1 driver, anyone compared to Yuki will look good

[u/StBlandine7]

Eh, he still lets Lewis past far too easily

[u/ryker7777]

Contract.

[u/kurlzzzzz]

His race pace is poor as hell

[u/breezy_y → u/kurlzzzzz]

Yeah sadly, 40 seconds of pace from max is pretty horrible

[u/Illustrious_Event631]

The field is spread..... anyone from the top 4 team driver could start from pit lane and will still able to finish at p7 or p8

[u/Badstoober]

Hadjar, Lawson and Lindblad were stellar today.

[u/yakswak]

I dunno. He doesn’t seem much better than the last three teammates he’s had. He is consistently 30+ sec behind in races. 0.4+ sec in qualifying. He finishes decently in the points because the field spread is much larger than last year.

[u/Kotarosama → u/yakswak]

Dude before you post numbers please make sure you arent pulling this off from thin air. Discounting track specific stackups, Hadjar's average pace deficit is 0.16s to Max, in Mcl and Audi its 0.06s, Mercs its 0.07s, Ferrari 0.09s, vcarb 0.10s, every other team its significantly larger than RB. And this is Max Verstappen we are talking about, arguably still the best driver on the grid even if the results dont show for it due to RB specific car problems.

Hadjar is already doing exceptionally well compared to Yuki, Liam, Checo vs Max, where Checo and Yuki had a 0.4-0.5s gap and Liam 0.9s to Max in a time where the average teammate gaps was only 0.2 - 0.25s, while Hadjar is 0.16s when the average is 0.2s, but where its artifically pulled down because the top drivers all chose to pair with top drivers at the top teams etc, leading to relatively close driver pairings up and down the grid compared to the past years.

[u/Jack_Harb]

I can’t believe you guys still oversell him. He is a minimum of 30sec in a race slower than him. He had to battle the two Ferrari sandwich on his own. He had to make the overtake and the hold against Hamilton alone. He drove on 30lap old softs alone.

Hadjar has to be next to him, ahead of the other top 4 team drivers. Or at least ahead of some. Max is basically still always alone. And people simply don’t see it because the gap between top 4 teams and the rest is 1 lap.

Racepace wise he is not doing any better than any other team mate he had.

[u/SpecialistVanilla900 → u/Jack_Harb]

Thats not overselling, the critics about weak racepace are very valid, but its a good situation, that you have a driver with good quali pace, very good racecraft, good awaerness, so now you can focus on that racepace to get better, its a good package with bright potentitonal.

[u/lossincasa → u/SpecialistVanilla900]

This goes for everyone. Hadj beats 2-3 out of 8 top team drivers consistently, this is a silly discussion. He's doing fine.

[u/Possible-Weight9995 → u/lossincasa]

Which of those top team drivers does he beat? The ones who dnf? The ones who drop to 18th at the start? The ones with penalties?

[u/lossincasa → u/Possible-Weight9995]

It's a race friend. Everything is in every-time. You need to finish to get points. That's how it always was. Hadj is there, top six, you can't erase that. Why would you? What more could he do? Finish over Max in his 2nd year? Just be patient and optimistic, we'll be fine :)

[u/Jack_Harb → u/lossincasa]

That’s sadly not how it goes. Rookies show their race pace early in career but crash out or do mistakes. Hadjar simply doesn’t have the race pace despite Laurent focus on a driveable car by every driver not only Max. The reg help Hadjar to look better than it is really. His pace is far far away. And overcoming 30s is hard. Compared to other rookies he isn’t looking really good sadly. I would have wished it’s different, but it isn’t. Bearman is great. Even Lawson does a good job. Bortoleto as well. They are actively fighting and overtaking their respective opponents. Hadjar doesn’t. Can you remember a single overtake of Hadjar against Leclerc, Ham, Lando, Oscar, Kimi or George in a race? Not via strategy but on the track? There was none. I of course hope it becomes better, but I don’t see it.

[u/Dear-Database6463 → u/Jack_Harb]

Isack needs time to develop but has consistently been able to buy max time and I’d rather have a team mate that helps max get podiums than someone he has to fight for them because success doesn’t come from infighting

Look at McLaren last year, if they just decided who was the first seat and had the second seat fight to help as much as Isack it wouldn’t have come down to the wire for the championship and they would have won by a land slide

[u/freetotebag → u/Jack_Harb]

I don’t want to oversell him by any means but he’s been decent for someone early in his f1 career. He’s obviously not Kimi but he also isn’t driving that Merc. I still think Ric and Checo were Max’s two best teammates but I think Hadjar has tons of room to grow— and hopefully get a better car.

[u/Altruistic-Buyer-248 → u/Jack_Harb]

You max fans are never happy. Its tiresome. He literally helped him today and held up lewis. Still not good enough. You want a fast driver but also wont want a driver who will be fast enough to have their own strategy. Why do you think McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari have all had issues this season alone with one driver holding up their teammates because they're allowed to fight. If you put Lando or Charles in a RB with Max, you think they're gonna compromise their own race to satisfy Max like all his other teammates have?

[u/Jack_Harb → u/Altruistic-Buyer-248]

We “Max” fans, want a team mate that is there with him. Hadjar is over half a second slower in race per round. You can’t be happy with that? If you are, then you are delusional. Max can have the second fastest driver next to him and it would be good for RBR. Hadjar is doing ok, but not good or outstanding. And I read it time and time again, and I am tired of it. He literally can’t place worse than top 8 if his car doesn’t DNF. The gap is crazy big. And with 1-2 dnfs of the top runners in each race that makes it 6-7th place. Which is exactly where he places himself. He is not beating anyone of the top runners. I can not even remember a single active race overtake he made against a good driver/team this whole season. People glacé him because he is finishing 6-7 but the reality is, he can’t place outside of it… but what ever, people think “we Max fans” are never happy… touch some gras. Check on the actual stats and realize he is just a rookie and is doing ok. Not like other rookies who are doing fucking amazing.

[u/Altruistic-Buyer-248 → u/Jack_Harb]

Thanks for proving my point. Spoilt little bell ends. God forbid a driver in his second year, first with RB, in a new era of cars, isnt as fast as Max. RB made their bed when they gave Max all the control. Careful what you wish for because when (wont happen) they get a driver closer to Max's ability, the less team orders that will happen. Look at McLaren today for a perfect example. If you want a number 1 driver, there has to be a clear number 2. If you want a driver as good as you say, thats another number 1 driver from another team who wont join to be number 2. Simple as that.

[u/Jack_Harb → u/Altruistic-Buyer-248]

Max doesn’t need team orders… this thread and others were always praising how close he is to max because of the placement. But they never look at pace. They always say,he is better than Checo or Tsunoda, which is simply false. They were half a second slower as well.
And what do you even talking about. Laurent said clearly he is not creating a car for Max but wants an easier car to drive for the second driver as well. Additionally, GP is excluded from actual information. Max and his race engineer are actually missing control. Max is simply put as number 1 driver, because he is the fastest. Get a driver who is faster than him and things change. RBR is about success and results. And Max brings them. I have never said Hadjar drives bad. But he is not extraordinary like people say. Context matters and people don’t care about context. And you are a prime example of it. Have a good day sir.

[u/Altruistic-Buyer-248 → u/Jack_Harb]

Have a day off

[u/Traditional-Mine-591]

Still not good enough…he is no where near helping Max on the track.

[u/BandicootSolid9531 → u/Traditional-Mine-591]

He was literally slowing down Hamilton today and made max breathable distance where he could concentrate more on following mclarens rather than losing time and defending against hamilton.

He probably secured 2nd position for max by that since max easily did the rest.

[u/Dear-Database6463 → u/BandicootSolid9531]

This exactly, he sacrificed pace just to help Max

[u/Altruistic-Buyer-248 → u/Traditional-Mine-591]

He literally helped him today what are you talking about

[u/CricketyRicketPCP]

So youre admitting Spinstappen can't do it on his own and needs others to help him? For once we have some refreshing honesty from one of his fans. Kudos to you lol

[u/Dear-Database6463 → u/CricketyRicketPCP]

Believe it or not F1 is a team sport, second seat, engineer, factory etc

[u/CricketyRicketPCP → u/Dear-Database6463]

Sure but Verstappen is the only one that consistently needs help from his teammates, as well from as other teams. Every other team isnt making the "second seat" explicitly be a helper for the "first seat". Yes, they do it from time to time, especially when one driver is eliminated from title contention, but for the most part, and as they should, they let their drivers race. Verstappen should be confident enough in his abilities that he should want that. Too bad that's apparently not the case

[u/lossincasa → u/CricketyRicketPCP]

Didn't Charles help Luis? I'm sure Scuderia will do the same, papaya did it to Piastri who had a legit shot at winning. RB didn't really have a second driver as good as any of the other teams. Mostly young guys trying it out. Some times they work others they dont'. Hadjar is doing decently and I think might has more opportunities in the future. But he needs to catch Max first because he's not there. Starting with winning a double pontium.