Concerning Lewis Hamilton data emerges in rare Hadjar comparison

Isack Hadjar delivered a very solid weekend at the Japanese GP, finishing in eighth position behind the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton.

The surprising data point from the race is that Hamilton was only one-tenth of a second per lap faster on average than the Racing Bulls driver.

Hadjar, after the mistake he made before the start of the Australian GP race, has stepped up and proven himself as the standout rookie alongside Kimi Antonelli.

The Racing Bulls driver is shining brightly, beating Yuki Tsunoda in both qualifying and the race in China and again, in Japan, outperforming not only Tsunoda in his new adventure with Red Bull, but also his new teammate Liam Lawson in his second stint with the Faenza-based team. And also beating Hamilton, his all-time idol, for the first time.

Hadjar struggled through the ‘S’ corners of the fast Sector 1 of Suzuka but recovered and made the difference in the braking zone at Turn 14 and the entry to Turn 9. A very strong lap by the Frenchman taking advantage of Hamilton’s inaccuracies on Saturday to qualify ahead of him.

Hadjar’s race in Suzuka was also very positive. It likely went unnoticed by many fans, but his performance—and that of the VCARB 02—was notable, as the team established itself in Japan as the fifth force on the grid just behind the top four teams.

So much so that Hadjar’s pace was comparable to Hamilton’s in the Ferrari. The seven-time world champion was only one-tenth of a second per lap faster than the Frenchman on average, and Hadjar crossed the finish line closer to Hamilton – +7.952s – than Hamilton did to Antonelli in P6 – +10.511s.

Hamilton overtook Hadjar at the start of lap 6. The Ferrari driver started the race on the hard tyre in Suzuka to try to overcut the Mercedes of George Russell and Antonelli, but the British driver wasn’t able to put the drivers from his former team into some trouble.

Hadjar, meanwhile, found a comfortable pace to stay within three seconds of Lewis and similarly maintain a comparable gap to Alex Albon in the Williams during the first stint. Running smoothly and without making any mistakes.

Ferrari’s strategy of starting on the hard tyre allowed Hamilton to run in clean air in second place before making his pit stop. Hadjar, stopping earlier, had to deal with traffic and had to overtake Carlos Sainz and his teammate Liam Lawson on track.

When Hamilton pitted, he rejoined ahead of the French driver with an 8-second advantage. That meant a loss of more than 4 seconds due to traffic for Hadjar, but it wasn’t at all a strategy mistake as he had to cover from an undercut attack from Albon behind.

Hadjar struggled with the hard tyre to match Hamilton’s pace with the medium and lost three seconds to the British driver in the first 10 laps of the second stint.

But in the second half of the stint, when Hamilton’s medium tyre began to drop off, Hadjar recovered almost all of the gap lost in terms of pure race pace—not the time lost due to traffic as he covered from Albon’s attack.

The four points scored by Hadjar in Japan mean that Racing Bulls overtakes Sauber for eighth place in the Constructors’ Championship.

The Faenza-based team is looking to gradually recover the deficit to teams like Williams and Haas after two unfortunate races in Australia and China, while also having to deal with a new adaptation process after being indirectly affected by Red Bull’s decision to carry out the driver swap between Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson.

For now, their car feels solid both in qualifying and race pace. Suzuka is a good track to measure the true potential of the cars, and the VCARB 02 has proved to be a machine capable of fighting for points regularly—at least in the upcoming races.

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