Isack Hadjar got his Monaco podium back this week. He still can’t drive a car. That is the strange little irony sitting at the heart of Red Bull’s latest update on their injured rookie, who now looks set to miss a third race in a row as his wrist refuses to cooperate with anyone’s timeline but its own.
Team principal Laurent Mekies confirmed during FP1 at Monza that a return for the Spanish Grand Prix, the inaugural Madring race in Madrid, is looking unlikely. Hadjar fractured his wrist in training during the summer break, a setback that has already cost him the Zandvoort and Italian Grand Prix weekends. Liam Lawson has filled in at Red Bull both times, with Yuki Tsunoda shuffled across to cover Lawson’s seat at Racing Bulls.
No Rush, No Risk
Mekies was blunt about where this leaves Hadjar mentally, even if the messaging around patience was carefully managed. Speaking to French broadcaster Canal, as reported by Motorsport.com, the team boss did not pretend everything was rosy.
“Look, Isack is okay. He can’t drive now so, obviously, I’m not going to tell you he’s happy, because he’s not. But the absolute priority is his recovery. We have no reason to take risks with it. His season so far has been fantastic, he’s very young, he improves every time he drives the car, so it’s important for him to return when he’s 100%.” – Laurent Mekies
That is the sensible version of events, and probably the correct one. A 21-year-old with a fractured wrist rushing back into a Formula 1 cockpit because a marketing department wants him at a shiny new venue is exactly the kind of decision teams regret in six months’ time. Mekies knows this, which is presumably why he has been leaning on outside advice rather than internal pressure.
Borrowing Wisdom From a Man Who Rushed Back Too Often
Hadjar has reportedly sought guidance from Marc Marquez, the seven-time MotoGP champion whose own injury history reads like a cautionary tale in real time. Marquez has spent years fighting the consequences of returning to action before his body was ready, and it is not exactly a subtle hint that Hadjar has been listening to someone who knows precisely how badly that can go wrong. If the sport’s most decorated recent crash survivor is telling you to slow down, you probably slow down.
On the question of Madrid specifically, Mekies did not sound optimistic.
“Madrid is a few days from now, so that’s tricky. We’ll reevaluate his situation, but targeting Madrid probably is tricky. But we’re taking things one race at a time and we’re looking at it together in a more rational way. Again, the priority, what will influence our decision, is being sure he returns at 100% and with zero risks for his future.” – Laurent Mekies
Note the phrasing. Not “we hope”, not “we’re confident”. Just a flat acknowledgement that the timeline does not favour a comeback and a team unwilling to gamble with a driver they clearly rate highly. Hadjar sits eighth in the championship on 68 points, still comfortably ahead of teammate Lawson’s tally despite the enforced absence, which tells you plenty about how his season was going before the wrist gave out.
A Podium Returned While He Watches From the Sidelines
The timing of this update happens to coincide with a separate piece of paperwork finally resolving itself. The FIA International Court of Appeal ruled this week that Pierre Gasly’s speeding penalties from the Monaco Grand Prix, originally rescinded on review, should be reinstated after all. That drops Gasly back to seventh in Monte Carlo and restores Hadjar’s original podium, his first for Red Bull, a result that had briefly vanished from the record books thanks to a dispute over pit lane measurements that nobody outside a stewards’ room could possibly find interesting.
Mekies, speaking separately to Sky Sports F1, made clear the team pursued the appeal for reasons bigger than one podium finish, arguing consistency in how speeding penalties are applied matters more than any single result. Convenient, perhaps, that the outcome also happened to hand his driver third place back. Still, there is something almost absurd about celebrating a podium reinstatement for a driver who, at the exact moment the ruling landed, was standing in the paddock unable to drive.
Lindblad Left Waiting Again
Spare a thought, too, for Arvid Lindblad, who has watched Lawson get the nod for both Zandvoort and Monza and admitted to being “a little bit disheartened” not to get a shot himself. Lindblad’s argument, that continuity makes sense given Lawson already has laps in the car, is fair, but it does not make the snub sting any less for a rookie sitting on 23 points without a single retirement to his name this season.
Patience as the Only Strategy Left
Red Bull’s approach here is not complicated. Wait for the wrist, ignore the calendar, and hope the version of Hadjar who returns is the one who was scoring points and standing on podiums before the summer break, not a diminished one nursing an injury that flared up because somebody got impatient. Given how competitive his rookie season had been running, rushing him back for the sake of a shiny inaugural race in Madrid would be a poor trade. Red Bull seem to know that. Whether Hadjar’s wrist agrees with the calendar is, for now, entirely out of anyone’s hands.
