Isack Hadjar will miss this weekend’sItalian GP too after Dutch Grand Prix. He suffered a wrist injury during a gym session in the final days of Formula 1’s summer break. Racing Bulls has confirmed that Liam Lawson will step up to Red Bull at Zandvoort. He takes the seat alongside Max Verstappen. Yuki Tsunoda moves the other way, returning to Racing Bulls to cover Lawson’s vacated seat.
So the timing could barely be worse for Hadjar. The 21 year old Frenchman has enjoyed a strong first season at Red Bull. He’s run within two tenths of Verstappen’s pace on average. Most paddock insiders expected him to stay on as Verstappen’s teammate into 2027. Even so, the injury forces a full reshuffle across both Red Bull-backed teams. This lands just as the sport returns from its month long break.
There’s a cruel irony sitting underneath all of this too. Zandvoort was where Hadjar scored his first F1 podium last season.That weekend gave Hadjar a genuine breakout moment on his F1 debut at the circuit. Now the same track marks the weekend he has to sit out entirely.
For Lawson, the call up carries its own strange sense of déjà vu. He made his actual F1 debut at this exact circuit back in 2023. He stepped in for Daniel Ricciardo after Ricciardo broke a metacarpal in a practice crash.
Lawson qualified 20th that weekend. He then recovered to finish 13th in difficult wet conditions. He held the seat for four more races before Ricciardo returned at Austin. Three years later, another driver’s wrist injury has opened the door for him at the same track. This time it’s Red Bull’s senior seat itself, not a stand-in role at the junior team.
That said, Lawson’s last stint at Red Bull didn’t end well. Red Bull promoted him for the opening two races of 2025. Then they demoted him back to Racing Bulls after the Australian Grand Prix, with Tsunoda taking his place. This time around, the promotion comes off the back of genuine form rather than a straight swap.
Lawson currently sits ninth in the drivers’ championship with 43 points. That makes him the highest ranked driver outside the top four teams. He’s also helped push Racing Bulls to fifth in the constructors’ standings alongside teammate Arvid Lindblad, reportedly the best finish in the team’s history.
Red Bull notably chose Lawson over both Tsunoda, the team’s official reserve driver for Dutch grand prix, and rookie Lindblad for the seat. Lindblad may simply have been too inexperienced for a call up this sudden. Meanwhile, Tsunoda’s F1 mileage in 2026 has been limited mostly to private testing since he lost his seat to Hadjar over the winter.
However, Hadjar’s recovery has taken longer than initially expected. Red Bull has now confirmed that the Frenchman will also miss the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, meaning he will sit out a second consecutive race. Liam Lawson will once again replace him alongside Max Verstappen, while Yuki Tsunoda remains with Racing Bulls.
The decision means Hadjar will not return to the F1 grid at Monza, with Red Bull continuing to take a cautious approach to his wrist injury. Red Bull has not yet announced a return date for Hadjar.
For Lawson, Monza provides another opportunity to impress Red Bull alongside Verstappen. For Hadjar, the focus now shifts entirely to completing his recovery and returning to the cockpit when he is fully fit.
