F1 testing 2026: Sky Sports Insider reacts to Hadjar crash and Verstappen's 'evil look'

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Sky Sports F1 insider reacts to Hadjar testing crash and Verstappen's 'evil look'

Hadjar crashed in the RB22 on Tuesday

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Saturday 31 January 2026 10:55

F1 insider Ted Kravitz teased 'evil looks' from Max Verstappen to Isack Hadjar after a crash for the new Red Bull star during the Barcelona shakedown.

Hadjar commenced testing for Red Bull on Monday, where he completed 108 laps of Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya without incident. On Tuesday, he competed a further 58, but a late crash blighted his afternoon.

The French driver lost the RB22 at Turn 14, where the car suffered significant damage. Due to the lack of parts being brought to the Barcelona shakedown, Red Bull and Verstappen were forced to sit out testing on both Wednesday and Thursday, awaiting new parts from Milton Keynes.

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Verstappen, who went off onto the gravel himself on Tuesday, only managed to complete 27 laps in the RB22 in changeable conditions, and Hadjar's error could have proved costly for the Dutchman's day of testing.

Hadjar crash has huge implications

Both Ted Kravitz and Craig Slater discussed the implications of Hadjar's crash on Sky Sports' Barcelona shakedown show, where they tried to decipher the atmosphere in the Red Bull garage.

“I feel a bit sorry for Isack Hadjar, could you imagine Max Verstappen in the motorhome giving him evil looks? It’s like ‘we’ve only got one car here. What have you done with it?'" Kravitz posed cheekily.

Slater, however, leapt to Verstappen's defence and said: "Max is not like that come on..."

But, Slater couldn't finish his sentence before Kravitz interjected: "Well if he’s only had 27 laps in wet conditions, hasn’t had any dry running and they don’t get the parts there, then he might end up with just one day on Friday.”

Slater continued to defend Hadjar, saying the Red Bull team would understand, and continued: "It’s very new cars, different characteristics, handling especially in the wet. Maybe you could question the wisdom of running as much as they did.

"That has been painful with the caveat we are still in shakedown territory and I think they will sort it out ultimately."

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies also defended the younger driver separately to the media after the crash, and said: "Look, it was a very tricky condition this afternoon, so very unfortunate that it finished that way, but it's part of the game.

"Again, very tricky, a lot of work to do on many aspects and these sort of things can happen.

"These difficulties today came after a very, very positive day yesterday in terms of the number of laps Isack could complete in the car and in terms of his learning and development and feedback to the engineers.

"So, early days, but great energy in the team, great spirits between Max and Isack and the whole team and we just can't wait to have the next possibility to run. But as I said, it's something we are trying to analyse now and hopefully we get some answer a bit later on."

Things eventually got back on track for Red Bull after both Hadjar and Verstappen returned to the track on Friday. The driver duo managed to complete a total of 437 laps, indicating a good level of reliability for the team's new in-house powertrains project.

F1 TESTING RESULTS: Barcelona shakedown times as Hamilton roars back

F1 Red Bull Max Verstappen Isack Hadjar pre-season testing Ted Kravitz