F1’s own Mr Nasty is critical of rookie Isack Hadjar following his emotional reaction to nightmare start to season.
The last three words any rookie wants to hear following his debut race are “did”, “not” and “start”, but if Hadjar was expecting any words of comfort from Red Bull’s Lord High Executioner, he would have to wait, and wait, and wait, for as far as Helmut Marko is concerned it was business as usual at Cold Comfort Farm.
Understandably, the youngster was distraught after putting it into the barriers on the formation lap, and it was good to see Anthony Hamilton, father of seven-time champ Lewis, throw a comforting arm around him as he arrived back in the pits.
However, Heartless Helmut, who watched the drama unfold on the TV monitors, described Hadjar’s distress as “embarrassing”.
“Isack Hadjar did a little bit of crying after his crash. That was a bit embarrassing,” he told ORF.
Talk about bringing a tear to a glass eye…
“When I saw it happen, my heart just sank for him,” Anthony Hamilton told Sky Sports. “Not just for him, for his parents, for everything they’ve done to work hard to get to this one point, and it’s like it’s snatched from you.
“I just felt terrible for him,” he added, “so I thought ‘you know what, I need to go and tell this kid keep your head high, walk tall, you’re going to come back’.
“I think he’s a phenomenal driver. I think there’s more to come from Isack than we probably have seen this weekend.”
“It was quite heart wrenching to see him so gutted in his first Grand Prix,” agreed Christian Horner. “I think the positives he needs to take out of it when he reflects on the weekend. He performed very well through the practices and the qualifying.
“You forget that these guys are just kids really,” he added. “Obviously a lot of emotion for him today, but I think when he strips it back, there’s an awful lot of positives he can take out of the weekend. He’s got many bright days ahead of him.”
Marko laid down an early marker heading into the weekend, when he took time out to refer to a couple of the other 2025 rookies.
“I don’t think he’ll complete the full season,” he told Servus TV of Jack Doohan at the start of the weekend, having labelled the Australia a “C (grade) driver”.
While the Austrian rates Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman as “A grade”, 2024 F2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto only rates a “B”.
“He’s a very intelligent driver,” he said of the Brazilian, “won the Formula 3 championship but with only one victory. He always stays out of trouble in the races.
“Similarly, in Formula 2, he only has two wins,” he added. “Hadjar has four wins. So, he brings the car to the finish line, his strategy and tyre management is good, but I don’t think he’ll have that absolute final speed.”
“I don’t care,” said Bortoleto – seen above with Fernando Alonso (his manager) pointing to Marko as he kicked a kitten and stabbed several ducks wandering beside the track – when told of the Austrian’s comment. “I mean, I’ve seen that, and I love challenges.
“He’s a guy who has put a lot of talent in Formula 1,” he added, “and has put a lot of wrong talents in F1. So, you can see he got it right and wrong, and hopefully I will prove him wrong with the time.
“Nothing I say now in the media will change his mind,” he continued, “just my results on track. I’m sure I’ll prove him wrong at some point and hopefully he will admit this when I prove him wrong. For now, I’m just focussing on doing my job and improving and doing the best I can.
“I’m proud of what I did in junior series and I won in F2 and F3 against the Red Bull drivers he has, so good for me.”
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