F1 rookie Isack Hadjar remains upbeat as he looks ahead to the Chinese Grand Prix
Given the fact that his Formula 1 debut at the Australian Grand Prix ended before it began, with a spin on the formation lap, you might expect Isack Hadjar to have some trepidation ahead of this week’s Chinese Grand Prix.
But that could not be further from the truth.
Speaking ahead of the weekend, the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls driver declared that he felt “more confident” as the grid heads to Shanghai than he did a week ago.
“Heading to China, I feel more confident than I did a week ago when I was going to Australia,” said Hadjar. “In Melbourne, I immediately felt comfortable with the car on short runs and in Qualifying, which was one of the targets we had established, based on what we saw at the Bahrain test.”
However, in a twist of scheduling fate his first F1 Grand Prix will need to wait a little longer, as the Chinese Grand Prix is the first F1 Sprint race of the season. Hadjar believes that is a good thing, given that he lacks race experience in F1.
“Of course, I am still lacking race experience so it’s good that this will be a Sprint weekend, as I will have the short race to get a feel for it before the main one,” added the rookie driver.
On the other side of the garage Yuki Tsunoda, who qualified an impressive fifth before falling out of the points in Melbourne, believes VCARB is in line for a “strong” performance in Shanghai.
“The Shanghai track is quite unique, I do like it and I feel we can have a strong weekend,” said Tsunoda. “Our performance level every time we were on track in Melbourne was very good so if we have a straightforward FP1, picking up where we left off, we can do well.
“We will have to be fully focused as it’s the first Sprint weekend of the season.“
The Chinese Grand Prix gets underway later this week, and we will have you covered throughout the weekend here at SB Nation.
