The Red Bull Formula 1 team is still evaluating its plans for a final day of Barcelona running after Isack Hadjar suffered a crash with the new RB22 on Tuesday.
In tricky wet conditions, Hadjar spun backwards into the wall at Barcelona’s final corner, damaging the rear of Red Bull’s 2026 challenger in the process and ending the Frenchman’s day. Given the limited information available from the behind-closed-doors test, it is not yet clear whether Hadjar made an error or whether there was an issue with his car.
Hadjar’s team-mate Max Verstappen had completed the morning session, getting only one dry run in before the expected rain arrived. But given the huge amount Red Bull has to discover about its car and its first-ever in-house power unit, it felt running in the wet was still worth it.
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies says the team is still evaluating its plans for the coming days following Hadjar’s accident. With Red Bull having tested on Monday and all 11 teams restricted to three days out of a possible five, the squad is not under pressure to get out on Wednesday morning as it has already completed two days.
“There was some good learning on the wet,” Mekies said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t end up in the right way, but what is important [is] that Isack is okay and we’ll try our best to repair the car and to see what’s coming next.
“It was a very tricky condition this afternoon, so very unfortunate that it finished that way, but it’s part of the game. Again, very tricky, a lot of work to do on many aspects and these sorts of things can happen. These difficulties today came after a very, very positive day yesterday in terms of the number of laps Isack could complete in the car and in terms of his learning and development and feedback to the engineers.
“It’s something we are trying to analyse now and hopefully we get some answer a bit later on. The priority right now is to assess the damage on the car and to see what it gives us in terms of opportunities to run in the next day. We only have one day left, so we have to make sure we place that card carefully and it’s an analysis that will take still a few hours.”
Laurent Mekies, Red Bull Racing Team Team Principal
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Mekies hailed the Milton Keynes squad for its otherwise productive start to the 2026 pre-season, facing the huge task of bedding in its Red Bull Powertrains power units, which it developed together with Ford.
“We knew it would be a very special moment to be here for the first time with RB22, with our own power unit,” the Frenchman explained. “The last few months and weeks have been incredibly hectic to be ready, but ultimately we were ready on Monday morning to run and I can only take that opportunity to say a big thank you and well done to everybody back in Milton Keynes chassis and power unit side, because it was incredible to see the car going out at a few minutes past nine on Monday morning with our own power unit.
“Of course, it’s very early days and of course, nothing is perfect, but we could run, we could start to learn, work as one team. So that was a huge satisfaction. It doesn’t change the size of the journey in front of us, but certainly it’s a first moment that everybody in MK should be proud of.”
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