{"id":7051,"date":"2025-04-10T06:42:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T06:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/7051\/"},"modified":"2025-04-10T06:42:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T06:42:36","slug":"f1-pundit-breaks-silence-after-controversial-isack-hadjar-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/7051\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 pundit breaks silence after controversial Isack Hadjar comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

F1 pundit Marc Surer has insisted that he was only joking after a quip about Isack Hadjar\u2019s seatbelt woes at the Japanese Grand Prix sparked criticism online.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hadjar has impressed since joining Red Bull sister team Racing Bulls at the start of the F1 2025 season, making two consecutive Q3 appearances in China and Japan.<\/p>\n

F1 pundit Marc Surer speaks out after Isack Hadjar \u2018joke\u2019 backfires<\/p>\n

The French-Algerian converted seventh on the grid into his first F1 points at Suzuka last weekend as Hadjar finished eighth, holding off Williams\u2019 Alex Albon.<\/p>\n

It came after Hadjar was heard complaining of discomfort in the cockpit during qualifying in Japan, later describing the issue with his seatbelts<\/a> as \u201ca nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hadjar came to prominence after crashing out on the formation lap of his F1 debut in Australia last month with the 20-year-old spotted crying in the aftermath of the incident.<\/p>\n

Isack Hadjar: Red Bull\u2019s latest F1 superstar?<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 All the mid-season driver swaps Red Bull have made in their F1 history<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 F1 driver contracts: What is the contract status of every driver on the F1 2025 grid?<\/a><\/p>\n

Helmut Marko, the long-serving Red Bull adviser, took a dim view of Hadjar\u2019s emotional reaction<\/a> to his mistake in Australia, describing his tears as \u201cembarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commentating on the Japanese Grand Prix for Swiss-German outlet SRF last weekend, Surer could not resist a joke at Hadjar\u2019s expense when the Racing Bulls star discussed his seatbelt problems over team radio.<\/p>\n

Surer said: \u201cAt least he\u2019s not crying this time!\u201d<\/p>\n

The former F1 driver\u2019s comment has been met with a fierce backlash with a viral post on TikTok, the popular video-sharing platform, calling for Surer to be dropped by SRF.<\/p>\n

\u201cDear SRF Sport,\u201d the post says. \u201cPerhaps you should reconsider your choice of commentators. Marc Surer \u2013 the commentary was abysmal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surer, who made 82 F1 starts for the likes of Arrows and Brabham between 1979 and 1986, has insisted that his remark was intended as a light-hearted quip.<\/p>\n

And he has expressed his admiration for Hadjar having followed the Red Bull graduate\u2019s progress in F2, where he finished as runner-up the current Sauber driver Gabriel Bortoleto in 2024.<\/p>\n

Surer told Swiss-based newspaper Blick<\/strong>: \u201cIt was a joke. Unfortunately, not all viewers took it that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always watch all the Formula 2 races. He already showed his talent there last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have expected him to be so strong in Formula 1 straight away, but Isack is a really strong driver.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on Isack Hadjar and Racing Bulls<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Isack Hadjar news<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Racing Bulls news<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking to assembled media after the race at Suzuka, Hadjar claimed eighth was the maximum result available to Racing Bulls in Japan.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cAll we could have done today was P8 and we did it, so I think it was a perfectly executed race.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeft nothing on the table and the pace was definitely strong.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially on the medium [tyre] in the first stint, I felt really, really strong. The first half as well on the hard and later on Alex was just flying and he was catching bit by bit, but I had enough gap to secure the place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still need to review it, but all in all it was good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0Concerning Lewis Hamilton data emerges in rare Hadjar comparison<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"F1 pundit Marc Surer has insisted that he was only joking after a quip about Isack Hadjar\u2019s seatbelt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,225,1085,12,1084,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-7051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-home-page","12":"tag-isack-hadjar","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-racing-bulls","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114312311447038029","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7051","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=7051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}