Speaking on Saturday evening, Pirelli motorsport chief Mario Isola said it would require a \u201cgenius\u201d rather than a strategist to work out how to make the most of the new, Monaco-specific regulation change.<\/p>\n
Read Also:<\/p>\n
It turns out Racing Bulls had both on the pitwall in Monte Carlo, as they were the first to utilise the tactic of the second car backing up the field to create a gap for the lead car to pit and return to the race in clean air.<\/p>\n
Isack Hadjar<\/a>, having started the race in fifth, was the beneficiary of the tactic, but Liam Lawson<\/a> deserves credit for carrying out his role perfectly, too.<\/p>\n It led to Hadjar finishing sixth, only jumped by Ferrari<\/a>‘s Lewis Hamilton<\/a>, and Lawson eighth on a fine afternoon in the Monegasque sunshine for the Red Bull junior outfit.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can see it \u2013 the whole team is gathered here in front of the garage, they’re absolutely thrilled for the team, for Isack, for Liam,\u201d Racing Bulls chief executive Peter Bayer told ServusTV.<\/p>\n \u201cBrilliant job by our strategists. We’ve had our share of frustrations with Laurent [Mekies, team principal] over strategy but today they really pulled off a stroke of genius. The bit of risk we took definitely paid off.<\/p>\n Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls Team<\/p>\n Photo by: Sam Bagnall \/ Motorsport Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cTheoretically there was even more possible. The risk was definitely high \u2013 ‘no risk, no fun’, as they say \u2013 but the decision was to let Lewis [Hamilton] go so we could essentially take control with both our cars.<\/p>\n \u201cCarlos [Sainz] might have taken that position from us otherwise, but since he was clearly pushing hard, we said \u2018okay, that gives us the window\u2019. And we had to use the soft tyres, so we tried to keep that stint as short as possible because they simply wouldn\u2019t deliver performance over a long period. And yeah, perfectly executed by the guys \u2013 we\u2019re very, very happy that the risk paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n Mercedes<\/a> team principal Toto Wolff was left frustrated with Williams<\/a> implementing a more aggressive version of the same tactic, but did single out Racing Bulls for doing a great job of \u201cpunching above their weight\u201d with this strategy call.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, it\u2019s hugely important \u2013 12 points in the championship,\u201d added Bayer.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that puts us just behind Haas, but even more important is, the car works, the team works, and there\u2019s harmony. You can really feel the energy in the team, the joy they get from their work. And sure, triple-headers are exhausting, but this way we\u2019re heading to Barcelona with a smile and looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n One person whose smile may be slightly broader than anyone else\u2019s is Hadjar, whose fine rookie season continued on the tight and twisty streets of Monaco.<\/p>\n Having brilliantly recovered from his inauspicious start to the year in Australia, with the Frenchman in tears after crashing out before the race had even begun, he is now showing great potential \u2013 even if he was slightly unimpressed by the enjoyment of his Monaco debut.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem is you’re nearly falling asleep because you’re doing tyre management and it’s becoming really boring,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes I was picking up the pace because I was so bored that I had to keep thinking. It was a long way to the end. Qualifying was the most intense day and the most hard work I’ve had to put in since I can remember.<\/p>\n Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls Team<\/p>\n Photo by: Zak Mauger \/ Motorsport Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cToday it was a bit easier because I really relied on Liam. He followed the strategy and the plan perfectly. He offered me really early pitstops. That was the target and that was perfectly executed.\u201d<\/p>\n Lawson has now seemingly found the feeling of being back home after his promotion to Red Bull lasted just the opening two rounds of 2025.<\/p>\n The disappointment in not getting a longer run to prove himself would have stung, but now he is getting on with his business and proved on Sunday he would do what is needed for the team.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, there’s always a potential, and I think obviously when we make a decision like that, our race is limited to basically where I was in P8,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut honestly, it’s hard to overtake here anyway. So, for us on our side, the damage was done in quali yesterday, but for the team it’s a great result.<\/p>\n \u201c[Driving slowly] is actually really a lot more difficult than I expected from a concentration point. But, yeah, it’s something that obviously, from a team side, made sense.\u201d<\/p>\n In this article<\/p>\n Mark Mann-Bryans\n<\/p>\n Formula 1\n<\/p>\n Liam Lawson\n<\/p>\n Isack Hadjar\n<\/p>\n RB\n<\/p>\n Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics<\/p>\n Subscribe to news alerts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sitting in the Monaco Grand Prix media centre towards the end of Sunday\u2019s Formula 1 race, the press…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[52988,4199,707,4200,1085,228,52987,4856,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-133213","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-circuit-de-monaco","9":"tag-f1","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-formula1","12":"tag-isack-hadjar","13":"tag-liam-lawson","14":"tag-monaco-gp","15":"tag-rb","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114574094759770853","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Isack](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/isack-hadjar-racing-bulls-team.jpg\")
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