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TV viewers of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix were left in the dark over whether Red Bull actually gave Isack Hadjar permission to attack team leader Max Verstappen when the Frenchman showed superior pace.
Earlier in the race, Hadjar, who started on soft tyres, let medium-shod Verstappen through. Shortly after, however, Verstappen's pace faded and he began holding Hadjar up. The Frenchman took to the radio to ask for his teammate to pick up the pace before requesting permission to make a move.
The selectively broadcast radio messages by FOM between Hadjar and the Red Bull pit wall suggested Hadjar had the green light to fight his teammate for position. However, an unbroadcast message revealed that Isack received an explicit order not to overtake Verstappen.
The call came on Lap 27, just a lap after Hadjar's engineer told him to keep any battle with Max clean, after which Verstappen defended the inside line into Turn 1—the exact spot where Hadjar had let him through on Lap 7.
"Okay, Isack, I want you to hold position, we want you to hold position," engineer Richard Wood told Hadjar, putting a definitive end to the Frenchman's hopes of passing Verstappen.
Many pundits questioned whether Verstappen would have complied with the same team order Hadjar received and adhered to on Lap 7.
The last time Verstappen was asked to let a teammate past—Sergio Perez in Brazil 2022—he refused, triggering yet another team-order controversy in Red Bull's history.
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