Untelevised Red Bull F1 radio reveals captivating Max Verstappen team orders to Isack Hadjar

Hadjar, Verstappen, socials — Photo: © IMAGO

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Untelevised Red Bull F1 radio reveals captivating Max Verstappen team orders to Isack Hadjar

Hadjar was blocked from passing Verstappen in Baku

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Monday 28 September 2026 18:44

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Isack Hadjar was instructed not to pass Max Verstappen by Red Bull in untelevised team radio at Saturday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The first half of the race settled on the fight for second place with Oscar Piastri keeping Max Verstappen at arm's length by around a second, with the four-time world champion in turn being closely followed by his team-mate Hadjar.

That came after Verstappen easily passed Hadjar on the long start/finish straight for third place on the sixth lap when Hadjar was given the message by his race engineer Richard 'Woody' Wood, saying: "Ok, so Verstappen car behind. Remember, race time is priority here."

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After a few laps of closing on Piastri and threatening an overtake, Verstappen started to offer less of a threat to the McLaren driver despite keeping within 1.5 seconds of him.

This was due to Verstappen running into difficulty with his medium tyres, with a theory being he had taken too much life out of them while overtaking cars from his P8 position on the grid.

Piastri and Hadjar meanwhile were on the soft compound, which throughout the Baku weekend were offering excellent durability.

This caused Hadjar to seemingly be the faster Red Bull behind Verstappen, prompting awkward debate about releasing the No. 2 driver past Verstappen to attack Piastri.

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Hadjar's radio exchanges with Wood in Baku

On lap 16, Woody asked Hadjar about how much faster he could go, which ended with Hadjar saying he was happy to shadow Verstappen

Wood:"Isack, if you had free air, how much faster could you go?"

Hadjar: "Two, three, tenths only. Gap will stay here forever to be honest."

Wood: "Copy"

Hadjar: "Well, I'm happy to stay honestly, otherwise we're just going to lose time."

Oscar Piastri was holding off Max Verstappen in the first half of the race

But just four laps later, Hadjar appeared to start losing patience, urging Verstappen to go faster and hinting he could put pressure on Piastri.

Hadjar: "Tell him to keep pushing."

Wood: "Yeah, copy that, mate"

Hadjar: "Is he struggling now or what?"

Wood: "Yeah, he's going through a bad phase of these tyres."

Hadjar: "Ok, but I have pace, just in case"

Wood: Ok, copy, I'm working on it.

But by lap 23, talks of gearing up for a Piastri attack moved way for looking after tyres by reducing breaking and focusing on earlier deceleration.

Wood: "Ok Isack, so we think you've got the best race tyre, so look after it. Use lift-off when you can, use lift-off when you can, look after the tyre."

Three laps later, Hadjar asked if he could attack Verstappen and was told not to take any risks, before then shortly being told not to pass the struggling Dutchman.

Hadjar: "Can I go for it or what?"

Wood: "Got to keep it clean."

Wood: "Ok Isack, we want to hold position now, we want to hold position."

Hadjar: "Ok"

Verstappen finished just 0.1 seconds behind Russell

Red Bull's correct call

The two Red Bulls held station before a safety car came out on lap 31 after Alex Albon's crash in the Williams.

This allowed Verstappen and Hadjar to pit, and for Verstappen to pass Piastri immediately on the restart before going off to charge down George Russell for the lead.

This would not have been possible had Hadjar been in front, and given he was switching to the medium tyre would have been in Verstappen's way, on the favoured soft tyre, at the restart behind Piastri.

Red Bull's decision to keep Verstappen while controversial among fans and pundits for not playing to the team's strengths, worked out to be their best strategy that at the end of the race gave them a double podium behind race winner Russell.

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Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

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F1 Red Bull Max Verstappen Isack Hadjar