Red Bull gives Hadjar injury update ahead of potential Baku return

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies says there is “nothing wrong” with Isack Hadjar’s recovery, and that the team will evaluate his fitness ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Hadjar has been sidelined since F1 returned from its summer break at the Dutch Grand Prix, with the Frenchman missing three race weekends after fracturing his wrist in a boxing accident.

Isack Hadjar faces Red Bull simulator test before Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Hadjar reportedly suffered the injury while hitting a punching bag during training.

Neither the Frenchman nor his team has revealed the full extent of his injury, but he was spotted in the Madring paddock wearing a brace on his left wrist.

Replaced by Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson for the third successive race, Mekies said in Spain: “He didn’t feel that he was 100 per cent and that’s the only criteria we used – are you 100 per cent?

“And so it was an easy one for there.”

Red Bull is hoping that he will be back in the car for the next race in Baku, with Mekies saying Hadjar’s recovery is on track.

The team, though, will put him through a simulator session to help assess his readiness before deciding whether he is fit enough to race.

“There is nothing wrong with Isack’s recovery,” Mekies told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media.

“I think we have learned that it’s fundamentally a normal time for the sort of injuries he has, so we will continue with the same approach than what we had.

“We will evaluate the situation in a week’s time.

“We have a bit more than a full week to evaluate the situations, to see how he feels, and then to put him on the simulator, to expose him to real-life constraints.

“If he feels close to 100 per cent, we go for it.

“If he feels the recovery is not completed, we will stick on our approach to put his recovery first.

“What we don’t want to do is, by having an early return, compromise his long-term capacity to come back to 100 per cent.”

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Lawson says Red Bull could wait until the eve of the Baku race to make the call.

While that is not ideal for the New Zealander, he has managed to score points in two of his three Red Bull appearances.

“I think just going forward, it’s the unknown sort of all the way up to the race weekends, probably all the way up to Wednesday or Thursday for Baku will be potentially when that’s decided, and that’s quite tricky to mentally prepare for which car I’ll drive,” he said.

“But at the same time, like I said, the more time I drive this, the more comfortable.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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