Red Bull’s stated plan for life after Christian Horner is to build the next era around Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar. This weekend that plan is on hold.

Hadjar fractured his wrist during a boxing session in the summer shutdown and will miss the Dutch Grand Prix, the team said on 19 August. Liam Lawson steps up from Racing Bulls to partner Verstappen at Zandvoort. Yuki Tsunoda, the reserve driver who lost his Red Bull seat at the end of 2025, moves the other way to sit alongside rookie Arvid Lindblad.

The absence is short. The timing is not.

A missing building block

Team principal Laurent Mekies has been open about the shape of Red Bull’s 2027 project. Verstappen and Hadjar are the preferred line-up, the same pairing as this season. Hadjar, on an annually reviewed deal, has repaid his winter promotion from Racing Bulls with points in his last six races and qualifying peaks of P5 in Monaco and Silverstone.

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The 21-year-old sits eighth in the drivers’ championship on 68 points, with Verstappen sixth on 109. Red Bull have not won a race in the first 11 rounds of 2026, their worst start since 2015. Alongside a four-time champion in a car he has called unpredictable, Hadjar has been the closest thing to a bright spot in the garage.

Losing him for a weekend costs the team a stable reference point on regulations Red Bull are already trailing on, and it costs Hadjar seat time in an RB22 that changes character from track to track.

Lawson’s short-notice return

Lawson is not an unfamiliar name at Red Bull, though the last spell was uncomfortable. The New Zealander was promoted for the opening two rounds of 2025 before being demoted back to Racing Bulls. He now walks back into the RB22 for a sprint weekend, with a single practice session to acclimatise to a car that behaves differently to the one he has driven all season.

The team thanked Lawson for stepping in on short notice in its statement confirming the change, and wished Hadjar a speedy recovery.

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Verstappen’s clause is already open

Verstappen’s contract at Red Bull runs to 2028, but a performance clause activated when he went into the summer break outside the top two of the drivers’ championship. He has until October to decide whether to trigger it. He currently sits sixth, roughly 110 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli.

Whether Verstappen stays or leaves, Red Bull’s development bet has been on a young second driver settling in alongside him. Pull Hadjar out of that setup for even a race, and the picture Mekies has been trying to draw for 2027 loses a corner.

A team without its old certainties

The wider Red Bull picture has changed sharply. Horner was replaced by Mekies in July 2025 after two decades in charge. Design chief Adrian Newey has gone. Long-time race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase and adviser Helmut Marko are also out of the picture. The team runs its own Ford-partnered power unit for the first time in 2026, and reliability has been a running theme.

Against that backdrop, a wrist injury to a promising 21-year-old is not, on its own, a crisis. What it exposes is how narrow Red Bull’s margin for error has become.

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The Italian Grand Prix at Monza follows on 4-6 September. Red Bull expect Hadjar back by then. Verstappen’s own decision is due before the season is out.

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