‘Nothing wrong with Isack’s recovery’ - Mekies on when Hadjar will return

Isack Hadjar has missed the three races since the summer break ended, sitting out Zandvoort, Monza and Madrid as he recovers from an injury sustained in training. The Frenchman hurt his wrist in the three-week break, and has been on the sidelines ever since.

In his absence, Liam Lawson has stepped up into the vacant Red Bull seat, with Yuki Tsunoda filling Lawson’s cockpit at Racing Bulls.

Those two have done an admirable job in difficult circumstances, but they face a wait to see just who will be where for the next Grand Prix in Azerbaijan.

Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies clarified the situation in the wake of the Spanish Grand Prix, confirming that there had been no additional setbacks for Hadjar, and that his recovery was taking as long as expected.

“Isack is good... There is nothing wrong with Isack's recovery. I think we have learned that it's fundamentally normal time for the sort of injuries he has,” Mekies said.

“So, we will continue with the same approach than what we had, we will evaluate the situations in a weeks’ time, we have a full week, with more than a full week to evaluate the situation to see how he feels.

“And then to put him on the simulator, to expose him to real-life constraints… If he feels close to 100%, we go for it. If he feels the recovery is not completed, we will stick [with] our approach to put his recovery first.

“What we don't want to do is by having an early return, compromise his long-term capacity to come back to 100%.”

Hadjar has made a strong start to his time with Red Bull, with eight top-10 finishes, including a podium in Monaco. He has also managed to out-qualify Max Verstappen three times.

This injury setback is far from ideal, with the Frenchman having missed out not just on points, but on learning more about the RB22 as everyone continues to get to grips with the new generation of cars.

He has still attended races and thus will have been looking at the data, but that is not the same as driving and understanding exactly where the latest upgrades are taking the car.

In his absence, Verstappen has taken two podiums to show what the car is capable of, while Lawson has finished in the points twice from his three drives with the team.

Another driver in recent memory to come back from a wrist injury was Lance Stroll, who had a bicycle accident prior to the start of the season in 2023. He missed testing but drove in the opening race and scored points despite having a broken wrist and toe.

Daniel Ricciardo was out considerably longer than Stroll when he broke a bone in his hand in 2023 after crashing in practice at Zandvoort. The Australian wound up missing five Grands Prix – with Lawson being his replacement at the time.

It seems that Red Bull are happy to leave it late to make a call on whether Hadjar will return to the cockpit for the upcoming triple header, or whether he will remain on the sidelines for the time being.