The staggering statistic behind Isack Hadjar's and Red Bull's poor 2026 F1 starts

If Red Bull Formula 1 driver Isack Hadjar has one priority for this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix, it's for the Frenchman and his team to avoid adding to his enormous tally of lost positions at the start of a grand prix.

Race starts have been an Achilles heel for Red Bull and its sister team Racing Bulls as they get up to speed with the brand-new power unit from Red Bull-Ford Powertrains, which has otherwise gotten off to a strong start and has even been deemed the most powerful V6 engine.

Hadjar has been particularly struggling with the launch procedure of his car. Over the first seven grands prix the Frenchman lost a staggering 21 positions on lap one. Barcelona was his worst yet, with Hadjar bogged down with an anti-stall failure that dropped him from sixth to 13th.

Hadjar was adamant there was nothing he could do from the cockpit and is urging his team to get a handle on it.

"I think we had like so far this year probably one good start, like in the sprint race in Canada," he said. "The first race start in Monaco [as well] and that was it. I think every other start I lost places.

Isack Hadjar was swallowed by the pack at the Barcelona Catalunya GP

Photo by: Marcel van Dorst / EYE4images / NurPhoto via Getty Images

"That's what we are trying to figure out and it's complicated. To make it clear, it's not human error on my side. That's for sure. I think the procedure is simple and I know how to achieve it. It's just deeper issues.

"I told the guys it's the main point to focus over the last week since Barcelona. It's what they've been focusing very hard on and let's see from FP1 how I feel. But in Barcelona the whole weekend, every time I dropped the clutch, it was going nowhere and it was like that the whole time."

Verstappen has also struggled with starts, although he has been largely able to minimise losing positions other than a catastrophic failure at the start in Monaco, where he stalled from the front row and had to retire the car.

"Just look at my starts in general. Throughout the season, I don't think they have been particularly great," Verstappen added. "So, yeah, for sure, that's an area where we need to do better. We just have some limitations at the moment with the engine, clutch, stuff like that, that we need to optimise."

At the sister team, both Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad also suffered poor getaways in Spain, losing a combined 10 positions on lap one.

Max Verstappen retired after lap 1 of the Monaco Grand Prix following a stall at the start

Photo by: Erik Junius

After that race, Red Bull F1 chief Laurent Mekies admitted his company's first-ever F1 power unit has a "very narrow window" to get going off the line, which the squad is trying to address.

"We have had weak starts so far this season. It's part of year one as power unit manufacturers," Mekies conceded. "We learned there are a lot of things we need to improve and to work out between chassis side and PU side.

"We have a very good power unit, but it's a power unit that also has a very narrow window. And there are many areas where you also make your life a little bit more difficult. So, it's part of the learning process as a year one."