Red Bull identify 'disadvantage' as F1 heads towards hiatus

Isack Hadjar has highlighted how the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix being called off will be a "disadvantage" for Red Bull.

The Frenchman explained that with more time on track, the more the Milton Keynes-based squad is able to bridge the power unit deficit to the leading manufacturers, like Mercedes and Ferrari.

It has been a difficult start to the campaign for the six-time constructors' champions, despite impressing considerably through F1 pre-season.

At the advent of its power unit partnership with Ford, which has seen Red Bull become an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for the first time, the expectation heading into the year was that it would take some time for the project to get up to speed.

Testing in Bahrain — though not without its reliability gremlins, particularly for Hadjar — proved somewhat of a false dawn.

The RB22 initially performed okay, fighting to be the third-best package in Melbourne, but was undeniably troublesome at the subsequent round in Shanghai.

All weekend, Verstappen and Hadjar were battling against the Haas of Oliver Bearman and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly — and did not come out on top.

Whilst the latter retired from the Australian Grand Prix due to a power unit issue, the former suffered his own poor reliability at the Chinese Grand Prix.

With both rounds in April now confirmed not to be going ahead, due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, Hadjar was asked if it affords Red Bull time to better understand its power unit.

Speaking to media, including RacingNews365, the 21-year-old said: "The more racing, the more we understand — and the closer we get to the best engines on the grid.

"So on that side, it is definitely a bit of a disadvantage for us, but it's fine."

On the other hand, various teams and drivers, such as Oscar Piastri, Alex Albon and Liam Lawson, have suggested there is a silver lining to not racing in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, with more development time now available.

When it was put to Hadjar that there was now more time to work on upgrades, he underlined Red Bull's current plight by replying: "Yes, and fewer points lost to everyone else, for sure."