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Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button agree on ‘clear’ reason for Isack Hadjar’s Monaco Grand Prix crash

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Isack Hadjar suffered yet another crash for Red Bull this season, with his latest coming during FP1 at the Monaco Grand Prix. Both Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button came to the same conclusion regarding the reason behind the shunt.

Isack Hadjar’s first appearance at the jewel in F1’s crown for Red Bull ended rather prematurely, with the Frenchman crashing out of FP1 following a shunt at turn 16.

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Just moments before a loud thud was heard around Monaco to signify Hadjar’s crash, Lando Norris was seen catching a big moment of oversteer at the very same corner. Luckily for the reigning world champion, he managed to get away with it.

The same can’t be said for Hadjar, whose RB22 needed a stark rebuild ahead of the second Free Practice session of the weekend, later on in the afternoon.

Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button both spotted Isack Hadjar’s ‘driving error’ in Monaco GP crash

The Frenchman was seemingly puzzled at the incident, telling his race engineer, after confirming he was okay, “I don’t understand why it snapped off like that. I’m sorry.”

However, Jenson Button was quick to determine a reason for it after seeing a replay of the incident inside Sky Sports F1’s commentary box.

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Official 2026 F1 team photos of Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen.
Photos by Scuderia Ferrari HP Press Office / Red Bull Racing / Red Bull Content Pool

Fellow pundit Anthony Davidson began by saying, “You can see when he shrugged his shoulders, and even his race engineer doesn’t understand how the rear got away from him going into that corner.

“But just a couple laps before, we saw Lando Norris catch a big slide there as well. I think he just lost the rear too late. It was unfortunately late in the corner where the rear steps out, and that was the end result.”

Button then pinpointed the root of the issue, adding, “He didn’t use all of the track on the entry. Do you not think he was quite far in? He turned in early; he was about 30-odd centimetres away from the edge of the track.”

The 2009 world champion’s sentiments were echoed by Ralf Schumacher during Sky Sports Germany’s coverage of the event, with the six-time Grand Prix winner labelling the incident as a ‘clear driving error’.

He told viewers, via Auto Motor und Sport, “He was simply going too fast, braked too late, and was driving off-line. A clear driving error.”

His suspicions were that the Frenchman was simply trying to match the times of his high-flying Red Bull teammate, Max Verstappen, who ended both of Friday’s Free Practices in Monaco with the third fastest time of the session.

Many figures within the F1 paddock are under the impression that the 21-year-old has been grappling with the pressure of being Verstappen’s teammate at Red Bull, with Guenther Steiner highlighting Hadjar’s Miami GP ‘outburst’ as a clear indicator.