Isack Hadjar’s crash during pre-season testing at Barcelona has drawn immediate comparisons to Pierre Gasly’s troubled 2019 stint at Red Bull Racing, which began with two testing crashes at the same circuit. The 20-year-old Frenchman lost control of the RB22 at the final corner on Tuesday, sending the car into the barriers during a wet afternoon session. While the parallels are impossible to ignore, the circumstances surrounding Hadjar’s situation differ dramatically from those that doomed Gasly’s first Red Bull tenure seven years ago.
The uncomfortable parallels with Gasly’s 2019 season
The similarities between Hadjar and Gasly’s early Red Bull experiences are striking. Both drivers earned their Red Bull promotion as second-year Formula 1 drivers after impressive rookie campaigns. Both were chosen over more experienced alternatives—Gasly was picked ahead of Carlos Sainz, while Hadjar got the nod over Yuki Tsunoda. Both are French, both were paired with Max Verstappen, and both crashed at Barcelona during their first pre-season testing sessions with the senior team.
Gasly’s 2019 pre-season was particularly disastrous. His first crash came on the second day of testing when he lost the rear of the RB15 through Turn 12. Nine days later, he crashed again in the high-speed Turn 9, a significant impact that forced Red Bull to revert to older specification parts and limited Verstappen’s running on the final day. These incidents foreshadowed a catastrophic first half of the season that saw Gasly score just 63 points to Verstappen’s 181 across twelve races, failing to secure a single podium before his demotion back to Toro Rosso.
The psychological damage from those early crashes proved difficult to overcome. Gasly never found a comfortable setup with the RB15, his driving style clashed with the car’s characteristics, and his qualifying performance deteriorated progressively relative to Verstappen. The nadir came at the Austrian Grand Prix, where the four-time world champion lapped his teammate.
Why Hadjar’s situation is fundamentally different
Despite the superficial similarities, multiple factors separate Hadjar’s circumstances from Gasly’s nightmare scenario. The most significant difference lies in the technical landscape. Gasly joined Red Bull during a period of stable regulations, with only minor aerodynamic adjustments for 2019. Hadjar arrives amid Formula 1’s most dramatic technical overhaul in years, with the 2026 regulations creating a level playing field that fundamentally alters car characteristics.
The RB22 represents unknown territory for everyone at Red Bull. Verstappen himself is learning the car’s behaviour, which could narrow the performance gap that has plagued every driver paired with the Dutchman. The curse of Red Bull’s second seat—which claimed Alex Albon, Sergio Pérez, and Liam Lawson—may finally be broken by cars that behave differently enough that Verstappen’s years of experience with previous Red Bull philosophy become less decisive.
Hadjar’s crash also occurred under very different circumstances. Tuesday afternoon’s conditions were treacherous, with a wet track catching out the young driver despite a full day of dry running on Monday. The incident happened at the end of the session, minimizing lost track time. Gasly’s crashes, by contrast, came in dry conditions and caused significant disruption to Red Bull’s testing programme.
The critical importance of team support structures
Perhaps the most crucial difference lies in the support network surrounding each driver. Gasly was paired with race engineer Mike Lugg, who arrived from Formula E with no prior F1 experience. Lugg had been intended for Daniel Ricciardo, with whom he won the 2009 British F3 title at Carlin, but Ricciardo’s surprise departure to Renault meant Gasly inherited an engineer who was learning F1 simultaneously.
The pairing never clicked. Gasly later revealed he felt unsupported by the team, stating “nobody really stuck up for me” during his struggles. Lugg lasted just 18 months as a Red Bull race engineer before returning to Formula E in mid-2021, suggesting the arrangement worked for neither party.
Hadjar benefits from working with Richard Wood, a performance engineer who spent four years embedded in Red Bull’s systems before transitioning to the race engineer role. Wood gained trackside experience covering for Sergio Pérez’ engineer on multiple occasions and worked with both Lawson and Tsunoda before Hadjar’s promotion. This institutional knowledge and F1 experience provides a foundation Gasly never had.
New management brings different approach
Red Bull’s management transformation represents another significant shift. The team that Gasly joined was led by Christian Horner and Helmut Marko, whose ruthless approach to driver management became legendary. Underperformance meant swift consequences, with little tolerance for extended adjustment periods.
Laurent Mekies now leads Red Bull Racing after replacing Horner in mid-2024. While relatively inexperienced as team principal—he held the role at Racing Bulls for just 18 months—Mekies brings extensive motorsport experience and a notably different management style. Alan Permane, his successor at Racing Bulls, described Mekies as “exceptionally good with people” and “right up there with the best” team principals he has worked with.
Mekies demonstrated this approach immediately after Hadjar’s crash, downplaying the incident publicly: “Look, it was very tricky condition this afternoon, so very unfortunate that it finished that way, but it’s part of the game.” While team principals naturally defend their drivers, the contrast with the pressure-cooker environment Gasly experienced remains notable.
What success looks like for Hadjar at Red Bull
Hadjar’s task remains formidable. Verstappen enters his eleventh season and fifth year as world champion, with unparalleled experience in Red Bull machinery. The Dutchman’s qualifying prowess and race craft have destroyed more experienced teammates than Hadjar. Setting realistic expectations becomes crucial—success means remaining competitive with Verstappen, not necessarily matching him outright.
The 2026 technical regulations offer genuine hope that the traditional Red Bull second-seat curse might finally break. Cars with fundamentally different aerodynamic and power unit characteristics could reduce the advantage Verstappen gained from years of experience with previous Red Bull design philosophy. If the RB22 behaves differently enough, both drivers start from a more level baseline.
Hadjar must avoid further incidents during the remainder of pre-season testing. One crash in difficult conditions can be explained and absorbed. Multiple crashes would inevitably raise doubts about his readiness for the pressure of racing alongside Verstappen, regardless of how different his circumstances are from Gasly’s 2019 experience.
Breaking free from historical comparisons
The parallels between Hadjar and Gasly make compelling narratives but ultimately obscure more than they reveal. Yes, both are French second-year drivers who crashed at Barcelona during pre-season testing with Red Bull. The similarities end there. Different technical regulations, experienced support staff, reformed management structures, and varying crash circumstances all combine to create a fundamentally different environment for Hadjar to develop.
Gasly’s story had a happy ending—his demotion proved beneficial, allowing him to rebuild confidence and eventually secure a race victory with AlphaTauri before moving to Alpine. Hadjar has the opportunity to write a different story entirely, one where Red Bull’s second seat finally becomes a sustainable position rather than a revolving door of broken confidence and shattered careers.
