Hadjar laments Racing Bulls' strategy call in China

Isack Hadjar was left ruing Racing Bulls' decision to opt for a two-stop strategy as both he and team mate Yuki Tsunoda failed to score in the Chinese Grand Prix, despite promising starting positions.

The Racing Bulls duo were one of the talking points of Saturday's Qualifying in Shanghai, with Hadjar taking P7 and Tsunoda grabbing P9, but for the second Grand Prix in a row the team failed to capitalise.

Last weekend in Australia, the team pitted P5-starter Tsunoda late amid falling rain during the race – something that ultimately ended his chances of points – while Hadjar unfortunately span out on the formation lap after taking a P11 starting slot.

However, this time around in China, it was the team's insistence on sticking to a two-stop strategy that proved to be their undoing, despite tyre degradation being lower than forecast and many rivals opting to switch to one-stop strategies.

SHANGHAI, CHINA - MARCH 23: Jack Doohan of Australia driving the (7) Alpine F1 A525 Renault — Hadjar had a tough fight with fellow rookie Doohan in China

Tsunoda was further hampered when his front wing suffered a failure, while Hadjar found himself boxed in behind Alpine’s Jack Doohan for lap after lap. Doohan was eventually handed a time penalty for forcing Hadjar off-track during their on-track battle, but while that gained the French rookie one place when it was applied after the flag, he wasn’t able to try and chase down the cars ahead.

At the time the duo were fighting for P14, but following Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Pierre Gasly’s disqualifications, Hadjar was promoted to P11 – agonisingly close to the points.

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“Honestly what I could have maybe done better is the Lap 1, just avoiding chaos,” Hadjar said afterwards. “We had a really nice launch, better than both Ferraris ahead but I just got stuck in T2 and lost positions.

"Then the pace was surprisingly strong again and obviously we needed to stop, the other guys are doing one-stop so that’s 25 seconds [in lost time] so yeah, that’s it. It’s a shame.

“What happened today was out of my control, but I can't help thinking what it would have been like with a one-stop strategy race. We’ll review everything with the team before going back racing in Japan.”

SHANGHAI, CHINA - MARCH 23: Yuki Tsunoda of Japan and Visa Cash App Racing Bulls on the grid during — Tsunoda has failed to score in either Grand prix despite two top 10 starts this season

Every driver in the top 10 in Shanghai had completed a one-stop race strategy, with Hamilton originally the only front-running driver to try the two-stop before his disqualification. With the Ferrari man's result omitted, Hadjar was the highest finisher on a two-stop, winding up just two seconds off the points.

As for Tsunoda, he trailed home last following a late pit stop to replace his front wing, which appeared to suffer a failure as he did not make contact with any cars around him. As a result, his only points have come via a P6 finish in Saturday's Sprint.

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“Very disappointed, I was definitely expecting more,” Tsunoda said afterwards. “How I ended up in this race is definitely not the way I wanted. We didn’t have as much pace as the Sprint, we’ll have to analyse that.

“Strategy is something we have to revise what happened there as well. I can understand the thoughts behind it, but I guess the main learning is how we can prevent those situations for the future. The front wing damage was a bit frustrating, maybe it was debris, we will investigate, but some things are a bit unfortunate.”

To compound the situation for Racing Bulls, one of their main rivals Haas scored big in China, while Aston Martin also picked up points, as did Williams. That leaves the team down in ninth in the Teams’ Championship, despite having four top 10 starts from the three scoring events so far this season.