Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies says Isack Hadjar‘s recovery from injury is on target, despite the Frenchman having missed the last three Formula 1 grands prix.
Hadjar injured his wrist in training during the summer break and has since been replaced by Liam Lawson, with reserve driver Yuki Tsunoda standing in at Racing Bulls.
Interaction with seven-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez, who infamously struggled with injury for years, convinced the French sophomore he shouldn’t rush his return to action. Marquez broke his humerus in the 2020 Jerez opener, tried to partake in the next race, and ended up sidelined for the remainder of the season.
Asked after Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix how Hadjar was doing and what his odds to race in Baku were, Mekies smiled: “Isack is good, he’s downstairs right now. Joke aside, there is nothing wrong with Isack’s recovery.
“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 situations 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%, 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%.”
Liam Lawson, Red Bull Racing
In the meantime, Lawson will again be rather busy as the New Zealander is required to prepare for the next event with both teams, to account for any development in Hadjar’s situation.
“It’s a lot of time at the factory and doing a lot of extra preparations,” Lawson admitted. “I think this week off won’t be much of a week off.”
Asked if he was looking forward to getting back to his own car, he clarified: “I mean, it’s more the prep. Doing prep for both is a bit difficult, and getting used to different cars.
“Coming to the end of the [Madrid] weekend now, I feel quite comfortable in this car. But just going forward, it’s the unknown 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 what car I’m going to drive.
“But, at the same time, like I said, the more time I drive this, I get more comfortable. Going back now will be quite tough. It’s completely different to drive.”
Lawson has scored 14 points across his three grands prix at Red Bull, cementing his ninth position in the drivers’ standings. He’s now just 12 points adrift of Hadjar.
Additional reporting by Ronald Vording and Cihangir Perperik
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