A star of the Red Bull F1 team has raised concerns regarding the 2026 starting procedure after it had a detrimental effect on their result at the Barcelona Grand Prix last time out.
On Sunday, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya hosted the seventh round of the F1 2026 championship, which is currently led by Kimi Antonelli.
The Italian teenager’s Mercedes team are also way out in front in the constructors’ standings, with one of the biggest changes of the new regulations era being that Red Bull have begun to fall away from their status as a top team.
The energy drink giants are still within the top four constructors’ but are 52 points behind third-place McLaren after neither Max Verstappen nor Isack Hadjar managed to finish on the podium in Catalonia.
The RB22 has shown promise at certain stages throughout the opening rounds of the year, with Verstappen claiming P3 in Canada and Hadjar earning P3 in Monaco before a controversial decision from the FIA handed that position back to Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.
Since being promoted from Red Bull’s junior Racing Bulls team, Hadjar has done a considerably better job at closing the gap to Verstappen than any of the four-time champion’s other recent team-mates.
But one thing was clear in Barcelona – Red Bull’s starting procedure isn’t making life as the Dutchman’s team-mate any easier for Hadjar.
“Out of the six practice starts we had the whole weekend, it was the worst,” the 21-year-old continued, noting that Red Bull’s starting procedure severely hampered him straight off the line on Sunday when he dropped a whopping seven places on the opening lap and tumbled down to P13.
“It had to happen on the grid. I stalled twice, which I never did the whole season,” he continued.
“We need to fix these issues, because the procedure is way too complicated. I’m not a computer, I’m not a machine, I can’t be 0.0001 per cent precise. It’s not working.”
Hadjar was able to fight back through the pack but after emerging in front of the midfield, he found himself unable to fight with the frontrunners, exposing Red Bull as being nowhere near the most competitive cars.
“If you’re starting at the back, like me, you clear the midfield cars quite easily, and then the top cars are nowhere near you,” Hadjar noted.
“So then it’s a boring race. But to be fair, we did better than I expected for a track like that with these conditions.
Hadjar then looked to the next round in Austria where he hopes to improve, stating: “I think Red Bull Ring we’re hoping for a better weekend.”
