Isack Hadjar racing Formula 2 in Monaco 2024

Junior Formula Series

Monaco F2 victory stolen from Hadjar by last gasp Virtual Safety

Honestly, after a few laps I had the race in the bag. With two laps to go, I was already in my mind so happy. I was in control, the car felt amazing

Written by Peter Clifford | Layout: Oliver Schran

4 min readPublished on 26.05.2024 · 14:38 UTC

Isack Hadjar was superbly impressive and had the F2 Feature race at Monaco won until a last-minute Virtual Safety Car stole it from the 19-year-old Frenchman.

Fellow Red Bull Junior, 18-year-old Spaniard Pepe Martí, also had pace but Qualifying troubles left the 18-year-old Spaniard fighting from back in the grid Spaniard fighting from back in the grid.

Hadjar had it

“Qualifying was honestly not ideal even though we were 3rd overall. There was so much more in it, I was not comfortable with the car balance, I was lacking quite a lot of front end and was struggling to do the lap time. So I was quite happy to be P3 overall.”

“After that, you think the weekend is pretty much settled. For the Sprint Race, from 8th there is not that much you can hope for. I was trying for the fastest lap, but I was never able to build a good enough gap with the car ahead so I never managed to go for it."

So we just settled for the one point.
Isack Hadjar

We collected really good data, we knew how the car was reacting and we prepared an even better car for the Feature.”

“The Feature Race was really good. Obviously, the goal was to overtake Victor straight from the start. Going from 3rd we jumped him and the pace was really strong at the beginning. Then I was starting to lose the front and Richard was starting to get away in front. “

“It was starting to get a bit difficult but we were still second until he had his problem. Paul Aron tried the undercut on me, we had to protect it. We did and the next lap I overtook Richard. So then I was provisionally P1, we just had to wait for the late stoppers to pit.”

Isack Hadjar getting ready to race F2 in Monaco - 2024
© Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool

Isack Hadjar in the pit lane after the F2 race in Monaco - 2024
© Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool

Isack Hadjar racing in Monaco with his Campos F2 single seater - 2024
© Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool

Isack Hadjar on the podium of the Feature Race in Monaco 2024 - Formula 2

“Honestly, after a few laps, I had the race in the bag. With two laps to go, I was already in my mind so happy.”

I was in control, the car felt amazing, I had a good enough gap to P2, just managing.
Isack Hadjar

“Until this happened at the end. We lost P1 in a way that I would never expect, I didn't see it coming,” explained the Campos star who was deprived of victory by the ART team. They gambled on pitting O'Sullivan with two laps to go and following an incident the Virtual Safety Car was applied as he was already in the pit lane with the effect that his pit stop loss was drastically reduced and he came out ahead of Hadjar.

“That's how it is, but another strong weekend, a super car, a great effort from the team. I feel like we are the guys to beat at the moment, we are the quickest. I am looking forward to Barcelona and going one better.”

Marti Early stop

“I feel a lot better about the weekend than the results look. We were stronger than we have been since the start of the year and we had race pace.”

“In Quali, we had brake problems, couldn't get them up to temperature after the Red Flag, then had a lock-up. Then I got blocked so we just didn't get in a representative lap.”

“So we were only P10 in our group and you know that starting from so far back on the grid it is going to be a difficult weekend.”

In the Sprint I made a good start, the pace was strong and we made up 4 places from the start but then I made a small mistake and we had a DNF.
Pepe Martí

“For the Feature, we were expecting a good race pace so we went for a strategy that might make a race out of it even coming from the back of the grid. We were the first to stop and at one point it looked as though that might work for us. At one time we were 10th.”

Pepe Marti ahead of Kush Maini in Monaco 2024 - Formula 2
© Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool

Pepe Marti with his crew in Monaco getting read to race F2 - 2024
© Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool

Pepe Marti passing the Casino in Monaco 2008 - Formula 2
© Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool

Pepe Marti racing Formula 2 in Monaco 2024
© Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool

Pepe Marti #21 Campos Racing at the pit stop - F2 Monaco 2024

“What we didn't expect was to struggle so much on the Prime. Our experience was that it should last well enough but the deg was much worse than we expected.”

Towards the end, I just couldn't keep the guys behind.
Pepe Martí

“We got P14 and some points but we know we should be much higher up. I feel like I am driving even better than in Bahrain, the car has got pace and we just need to put it together for the weekend. At the Barcelona test, I was second quickest and fastest on one of the days so I am looking forward to that.”

“That is a month away though so it is time to reflect on things, think about what we need to improve and prepare.”