Isack Hadjar's tenure with the senior Red Bull team has got off to the worst possible start, having crashed during a pre-season F1 test in Barcelona.
Promoted to the senior team having stunned with the junior Racing Bulls squad last year, Hadjar was on intermediate tyres in greasy conditions when the crash happened on Wednesday morning (AEDT).
A video posted to social media shows the car hit the barrier rear-first. While the full extent of the damage is unclear, the rear wing appears dislodged.
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The crash happened with under an hour of track running remaining in the second day, meaning Red Bull are unlikely to have lost significant track time as a result of the crash.
The shakedown is being held over five days, with the gates to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, host of the Spanish Grand Prix, tightly closed to all external media and photographers.
Teams have also been limited on the number of photos – and their content – released each day. Teams are also only permitted to run on three of the five days.
As a result, grainy fan footage from vantage points overlooking the circuit have been the best source of imagery and video.
Red Bull has not publicly commented on the crash, other than to confirm Hadjar is "all good".
The second day of the shakedown had been plagued by bad weather, meaning Red Bull and Ferrari were the only two teams to hit the track.
Having also run on Monday and with spare parts a scarcity at the start of the season, Red Bull can sit out the next two days while replacement parts are shipped in.
Hadjar drove the car all of the first day, before Verstappen stepped in on the second morning, before handing the car back to Hadjar. Verstappen is expected to drive the car solo on the third day.
F1 will enter an all-new engine and aerodynamic era in 2026. While F1 has not publicly commented on why the first running of the all-new cars is being so tightly controlled, it's widely believed to be as a result of horrific unreliability at the start of the previous engine regulations in 2014. That year, Red Bull completed just 21 laps over three days.
The first of two official pre-season tests – which will be broadcast and external media and photographers permitted – begins in Bahrain on February 11.
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