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Red Bull rotates Hadjar back after wrist clearance, giving both drivers equal runway in the 2026 seat evaluation.
2028
at a reported
23 consecutive races
without a podium
$18 million
in constructor prize money based on 2024 payout tables
21
won the
Isack Hadjar will return to Red Bull Racing's second seat for this weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku after clearing medical protocols for a wrist injury sustained three weeks ago. Liam Lawson moves back to Racing Bulls, reversing the substitution arrangement that put him in the senior car while Hadjar recovered.
Hadjar injured his wrist in a practice session incident at Imola in late April. Red Bull pulled him from the following two rounds—Monaco and Canada—and elevated Lawson from the junior squad as cover. Hadjar completed FIA-mandated simulator runs and medical checks at Red Bull's Milton Keynes facility Tuesday, passing the requisite grip-strength and reaction-time benchmarks. The team confirmed his clearance Wednesday afternoon, forty-eight hours before Baku's first practice session.
The rotation matters because Red Bull's second seat remains the most scrutinized decision point in the paddock. Max Verstappen is contracted through 2028 at a reported $55 million annually. The second chair has cycled through four drivers since Daniel Ricciardo's departure in 2018—Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Sergio Pérez, and now a rotating cast including Hadjar and Lawson. Pérez was moved to a consulting role in March after 23 consecutive races without a podium, a stretch that cost Red Bull an estimated $18 million in constructor prize money based on 2024 payout tables.
Hadjar, 21, won the 2024 Formula 2 championship with six wins and arrived at Red Bull in January on a two-year deal. Lawson, 23, finished second in that same F2 season and has been on Red Bull's books since 2022. Both are auditioning not for 2025—Verstappen's seat is untouchable—but for the 2026 regulation reset, when Red Bull Ford powertrains debut and the team will need to decide whether to promote internally or shop the open market. Ford's partnership agreement, signed in 2023 for a reported $150 million over five years, includes performance clauses tied to constructor standings. A weak second driver directly threatens those bonuses.
Baku is an unusual proving ground. The 6.003-kilometer street circuit punishes mistakes—barriers line 90% of the track—but rewards late-braking confidence and racecraft in traffic. Hadjar's best result this season is eighth at Jeddah. Lawson scored seventh in Montreal two weeks ago, his highest finish in three substitute appearances. Red Bull's data science group, led by Ben Hodgkinson, runs delta analysis on qualifying laps and race-stint degradation to compare drivers on identical machinery. Those reports feed directly to Christian Horner and Helmut Marko, who make final seat decisions.
The wrist injury adds a medical variable. Baku's Turn 8, a ninety-degree left at the end of a 2.2-kilometer straight, generates 5.2 G of lateral load. If Hadjar shows hesitation on the brakes or inconsistent steering inputs through the castle section, Red Bull's engineers will flag it. The team has substituted drivers mid-season before—most recently in 2023, when Ricciardo replaced Nyck de Vries at Racing Bulls after five rounds.
Watch Hadjar's long-run pace in Friday's second practice session. Red Bull typically uses FP2 for race-simulation work, and that data will be layered against Lawson's Canada and Monaco stints. Also watch Racing Bulls' constructor standing—they currently sit seventh with 48 points, 12 behind Haas. If Lawson's return stabilizes that team's scoring rate, it strengthens his case for a senior promotion. Finally, note contract language. Red Bull's driver agreements include performance review windows tied to specific race weekends. Baku is the eighth round of a 24-race calendar—exactly one-third through the season, a common contractual checkpoint.
Hadjar's return does not close the evaluation. It restarts the comparison with identical remaining race distance for both drivers.
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