Racing Bulls throw support behind 'unreal' Hadjar after F1 debut heartbreak

Racing Bulls team principal Laurent Mekies insists Isack Hadjar will get the "full support" of the Faenza-based squad after his gut-wrenching crash prior to the start of his F1 debut.

The rookie Frenchman lost control of his VCARB 02 on the formation lap of the Australian Grand Prix, sliding helplessly into the wall and into an early retirement.

However, Mekies maintains that up to that point, the 20-year-old "didn't put a foot wrong", casting a particular spotlight on his "unreal" performance in qualifying, when he fell just short of Q3.

The 2024 F2 runner-up was immediately on the pace in Melbourne, finishing sixth-quickest in FP1. From there, he grew steadily into the weekend as it developed - until disaster struck in the torrid Sunday conditions at Albert Park.

When asked how he would go about lifting Hadjar's morale after the devastating blow, as part of an exclusive interview with RacingNews365, Mekies instantly drew upon the multitude of positives for his driver to take away.

"I think the short answer is: full support to Isack," the 47-year-old said. "He did an amazing weekend, and we are not going to let what happened cloud how strong of a weekend he put together.

"So that's the sort of support he's going to feel for the next few days, until we hit the track in China. He came here, first F1 weekend ever, didn't put a foot wrong. Was fast straight away, stayed calm, tried to build step-by-step his confidence.

"Ended up him qualifying half a tenth [of a second] from Q3, which is sort of unreal. And I think that's the picture we are going to take [from the weekend]."

Racing Bulls' 'strong position'

It was not just what Hadjar produced on track that impressed Mekies, who zeroed in on how his compatriot conducted himself with the team.

Whilst he admitted the lost running in the grand prix was a drawback to the crash, he also pointed how strong he feels the combination of Hadjar and team-mate Yuki Tsunoda can be.

"In that process, he was also very, very good at starting to build the relationship with the engineers and trying to channel all that behind the wheel," he explained.

"So, I can only feel sorry for the fact that we've missed many laps of experience with him, and that's not easy, so it's a point that we will be missing.

"But it's part of the game. It's part of the learning process. Mega support and we are in a very strong position with our driver line up."

Paddock-worth of support

Upon climbing out of his stricken car, Hadjar was visibly distraught. Those emotions were something that prompted Lewis Hamilton's father, Anthony, to console him when he returned to the paddock.

With the exception of Helmut Marko, the Racing Bulls driver has been showered in support after his tearful response to failing to even start his debut.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner had words of encouragement for him and F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali went to visit Hadjar during the race.

"Of course, it hurts," Mekies agreed when how much support his driver was shown was put to him.

"It's nice to see Anthony and Stefano coming, because they have been around long enough to know that it is part of motor racing to have these moments that hurt a lot when they happen."

He concluded by adding: "There is no other way than to take it on the chin, look at how you can do better next time and improve from there."