Hadjar enjoys ‘productive’ first day of Barcelona Shakedown with ‘impressive’ Red Bull engine

Isack Hadjar cut an upbeat figure after completing his first proper day as a Red Bull Racing driver at the start of the Barcelona Shakedown, describing Monday’s running as “pretty productive”.

After a series of shorter runs early on, Hadjar racked up a healthy number of laps as the day wore on, getting to grips with the RB22 chassis, Red Bull’s new power unit and a host of new driver modes.

Speaking after he hopped out of the car, Hadjar said: “It was pretty productive. Surprisingly, we managed to do a lot more laps than we expected. Everything went pretty smooth.

“We had like only minor issues, so it’s quite impressive considering it’s our first day with our own engine. It was definitely smooth.”

Pushed on the initial feel and driveability from Red Bull’s power unit, the Frenchman added: “Honestly, it’s pretty decent for our first day.

“It doesn’t feel too far off what I’m used to, at least in my first season, on all of the upshifts, downshifts. There’s still a few things to tweak around, of course, but it’s solid.

Hadjar also took a moment to talk about just how different the 2026 cars are to drive, and the host of modes that will be available to drivers from the coming season – including ‘Active Aero’, ‘Overtake Mode’, a new maximum power ‘Boost’ button, and a ‘Recharge’ setting.

“It’s definitely a lot less load in general,” he commented. “It’s a bit more predictable compared to the previous generation of cars – they are more simple, it’s easier to play around with them.

“Also, on the PU side, there’s a lot more options for the driver to play with; I already started to work on it today, so that was very interesting.”

Max Verstappen is expected to take over from Hadjar for Tuesday’s running at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with teams continuing to work through their Shakedown programmes.