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Crash-landing for Red Bull in F1 pre-season testing
Reuters • January 28th, 2026 12:31 pm
Red Bull recruit Isack Hadjar crashed in wet conditions at pre-season testing in Spain | Photo: AP
Red Bull were forced to reconsider their pre-season testing schedule at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya after new recruit Isack Hadjar crashed in wet conditions.
The 21-year-old Frenchman, promoted from Racing Bulls, lost control at the final corner and spun backwards into the barriers during a closed session on Tuesday (local time).
Team principal Laurent Mekies said they were assessing the damage before deciding their plans for the rest of the week.
Red Bull, now making their own engine, have used two of their three days and could delay running again until Friday.
"What is important is that Isack is OK and we'll try our best to repair the car and see what's coming next," Mekies said in comments to the governing FIA.
"The priority right now ... is to assess the damage on the car, to see what it gives to us in terms of opportunities to run in the next days.
"We only have one day (available) left, so we have to make sure we play that card carefully."
The incident came after Hadjar described Monday's dry running as "pretty productive", after completing numerous laps in the RB22 chassis.
The five-day shakedown will be followed by two pre-season tests, open to the media, in Bahrain in February.
Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton was happy with the pre-season testing, despite bad weather | Photo: Joel Carrett/AAP
Only Red Bull, with four-time world champion Max Verstappen testing in the morning, and Ferrari ran on Tuesday because of the weather forecast.
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton said it had been a challenging day because of the rain, but was still very productive, with about 120 laps on the board straight away for Ferrari.
"We got a lot of information from the car today, we definitely need to keep it up," said the Briton, who is yet to drive the car in the dry. "There were no major issues, we just need to get some more days like this."
The 2026 season marks the start of a new engine era, with an overhaul of the technical regulations.
McLaren, which boasts the superstar pairing of Australian Oscar Piastri and world drivers' champion Lando Norris, postponed their track debut until Wednesday because of the weather and will now participate in the final three days of testing.
