Red Bull have deliberately pushed the call on Hadjar’s return to the last realistic moment. Team principal Laurent Mekies said the evaluation will run right up against the flights to Baku, with medical checks first and simulator work to follow.
“We will evaluate the situation in a week’s time,” Mekies told reporters, according to Motorsport Week. He added that the sim programme is designed to load the wrist in a way that mimics what a driver actually feels through the walls of a street circuit.
The threshold is binary.
“If he feels close to 100%, we go for it; if he feels the recovery is not completed, we will stick on our approach to put his recovery first,” Mekies said.
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No early return, no compromise
Red Bull have been explicit that they will not rush the 21-year-old back for the sake of it. Mekies has stressed that the team refused to put Hadjar in the car while he was short of full fitness, prioritising the longer-term recovery over a quick comeback.
Hadjar suffered a left-wrist fracture in boxing training during the F1 summer break. He has been sidelined since the Dutch Grand Prix and was not cleared to race at Monza either, despite earlier hopes.
What Lawson has delivered in the RB22
Lawson has driven the second Red Bull for three weekends, with Yuki Tsunoda promoted from Racing Bulls to cover. His best result came at the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix at the Madring, where he finished sixth. Across the three race weekends he has scored eight points, leaving him twelve behind Hadjar’s season total.
The New Zealander has admitted the uncertainty is unusual to work through, saying it is “quite tricky to mentally prepare for what car I’m going to drive” while he waits for the seat decision.
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The Baku call
The decision is expected in the middle of the week before the race, once Hadjar has been through both the medical review and the simulator programme. If he is passed fit, he steps straight back into the RB22 for the street race on Sunday, 26 September. If not, Lawson stays put and Tsunoda takes another weekend at Racing Bulls.
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