Red Bull have said there is “nothing wrong” with Isack Hadjar’s recovery from the wrist injury that has kept him out of the last three grands prix, with a full week of evaluation and a simulator session to determine whether the Frenchman returns for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku. The update came from team principal Laurent Mekies on Thursday, September 17.
Hadjar was hurt during routine training before the summer break and has missed the Dutch, Italian and Spanish Grands Prix. Liam Lawson has deputised alongside Max Verstappen, scoring points at both Zandvoort (eighth) and Madrid (sixth).
“There is nothing wrong with Isack’s recovery. I think we have learned that it’s fundamentally a normal time for the sort of injuries he has,” Mekies said, adding that the team would “continue with the same approach.” He said Hadjar will be put through a simulator run to expose him to real-life driving loads, and that Red Bull will only go ahead with a return if he feels close to 100 percent. “What we don’t want to do is, by having an early return, compromise his long-term capacity,” Mekies said.
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend runs from Thursday, September 24 to Saturday, September 26, with the race starting at 3pm local time (12:00 BST / 7am ET) on the Saturday. It is the first leg of a triple-header, followed by Malaysia and Singapore. A decision on Hadjar’s participation is expected in the days before the weekend begins.
