Isack Hadjar has stated he feared a crash at the start of qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix after experiencing a drastic balance shift compared to practice.
Red Bull has been off the pace all weekend at Suzuka, and its concerns deepened on Saturday when four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen was eliminated from qualifying in Q2.
Although Hadjar managed to scrape through to the top-10 shoot-out, he could only consolidate eighth place - a significant 1.2 seconds off the pole lap time posted by Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli.
Throughout the session, Hadjar was battling his car after running into unexpected issues with the balance.
“It changed massively compared to FP3,” Hadjar told the media, including RacingNews365.
“My first lap, I thought I was going to crash straight away. It was just sliding everywhere.
“I was barely turning the steering wheel. We just had to walk around what we had and make it better through the session.”
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'You have no idea'
When asked if the team has a direction to work in, Hadjar replied: “No, not right now. What we are saying this weekend makes no sense.”
With both Red Bulls starting from the middle of the pack, the team is facing a tall task to walk away from Japan with strong points.
Hadjar, however, has suggested there is no telling how the car is going to behave in race trim.
“It goes into one direction or the other very quickly,” he said. “FP3 was the opposite balance. We went into quali the other way around.
“You have no idea, so you have to reset your expectations all the time.”
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