Hadjar: I'm really confident we can keep fighting for Q3 and points

One of this year's standout rookies, effervescent Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar scored his maiden Formula 1 points at Suzuka and arrives in Bahrain with growing confidence and momentum. That Australian Grand Prix DNS gaffe on the way to the grid becoming a fast-fading memory.

Ahead of his return to Bahrain, Hadjar said: “Bahrain is already the fourth race of the season and although it sounds crazy to say it, we’ve been super-fast and finally, in Japan I scored my first points. We got them on merit, on pure pace, so honestly, I’m feeling a lot of excitement going into this weekend and I’m feeling even more confident.”

Despite struggling during testing at the same circuit earlier this year, Hadjar believes the team has turned a corner: “Even though we had a difficult test here before the start of the season, I think we made the right improvements.

"Now, coming back to the same track, with the experience we have gained it’s going to be really interesting to see where we are. The whole team and I are really confident that we can keep fighting for Q3 and for points.”

Teammate Liam Lawson is also buoyed by the potential of the VCARB 02, having completed his first full Grand Prix weekend with the team in Japan: “Very excited for Bahrain, it’s a night race which is cool, I love a night race.

"Having Japan now under my belt in the VCARB, I’m looking forward to going straight into having another opportunity to get to grips with the car. We could see from last week that it’s got great potential, so I'm excited to start getting the most of out of it.”

He acknowledged the unique challenges Bahrain presents, particularly in terms of tyre wear and track conditions: “It’s looking like it’s going to be very very hot, especially this year, but being a night race, it brings different conditions. It’s an iconic track which is normally very hard on the tyres but it’s also a track that the team have tested at, so hopefully we can put everything learned from testing into the car this weekend.”

Racing Bulls Chief Technical Officer Tim Goss outlined the technical demands of Sakhir and expressed confidence in the team’s ability to extract performance from the VCARB02: “After a successful points finish in Japan, we return to Bahrain's Sakhir circuit for the second time this year."

Goss continued: "We have already completed extensive pre-season testing here, and have a good knowledge of how the VCARB 02 responds to the specifics of this track. It's a tricky circuit, consisting of a mix of hairpins and long-duration interlinked corners.

"On top of that the engineers have to contend with high asphalt roughness, large swings in track temperature (affecting tyre grip and thermal optimisation), wind (affecting aerodynamic load and balance), racing under floodlights, plus track resets due to sand.”

Goss believes Racing Bulls are starting to find their rhythm: “After three races, with quite varied characteristics, we are now getting confident that the car works well across a range of corner types, tyre selections and track surface specifics.

"But this is a very tight field, and we have to extract everything available from car set-up, tyre utilisation and race tactics to maximise our results. We have learnt from the last three races where things have either gone well, or not so well, and we come to Bahrain looking to continue to fight to place well in points finishing positions," added Goss.

Racing Bulls currently sit eighth in the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship, with Hadjar’s points haul from Japan marking a breakthrough moment for the Faenza-based team.