Isack Hadjar Returns to Red Bull for Azerbaijan GP as Liam Lawson Heads Back to Racing Bulls

• Isack Hadjar will race for Red Bull again at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after a wrist injury kept him out of the last three rounds
• Liam Lawson returns to Racing Bulls after three race weekends filling in for Hadjar at Red Bull
• Yuki Tsunoda goes back to reserve duties for both teams as Formula 1 enters its first triple header of the season

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A Three Race Absence Ends Just as the Championship Enters Its Busiest Stretch

Isack Hadjar is back in a Red Bull cockpit for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, ending a wrist injury absence that stretched across three race weekends. The Frenchman missed the Dutch Grand Prix, the Italian Grand Prix and the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix at Madrid’s Madring circuit after hurting his wrist in fitness training over the summer break.

Red Bull confirmed the news on Tuesday morning. “Oracle Red Bull Racing is delighted to welcome Isack back this weekend,” the team said. “Having made a successful recovery from his wrist injury, Isack will return to action at the Baku City Circuit on Thursday.”

Lawson’s Fill In Spell Comes to a Close

Liam Lawson was the man handed Hadjar’s seat for those three races, promoted from Racing Bulls to partner Max Verstappen at Red Bull while his usual seat went to reserve driver Yuki Tsunoda. Red Bull thanked Lawson for covering the gap. “The team would like to sincerely thank Liam for his professionalism, dedication and hard work over the past three races,” the team said. “Stepping in under challenging circumstances, he delivered some impressive performances and made a valuable contribution to the team. We wish him all the very best as he returns to Visa Cash App Racing Bulls.”

Racing Bulls confirmed the reverse switch is now complete too. “Liam returns to VCARB this weekend in Baku, with Isack having made a full recovery from his wrist injury,” the team said, before turning its attention to Tsunoda’s three races as a substitute. “A huge thank you to Yuki for stepping in over the past three races, giving everything for the team and scoring some very valuable points.”

The three driver rotation kept both Red Bull cars competitive while Hadjar recovered, and the praise directed at both Lawson and Tsunoda points to a covering job the team considered a genuine success rather than a compromise it simply had to accept. Lawson’s three race stint doubled as extra top level mileage for a driver still building his own case in the sport, while Tsunoda’s points at Racing Bulls kept that team moving in the constructors’ standings across those three weekends.

Verstappen and Hadjar Reunited

The swap means Red Bull’s intended 2026 pairing of Max Verstappen and Hadjar is racing together again for the first time after the summer shutdown split them apart. Hadjar had been a regular points scorer for Red Bull before his injury, and his return restores the line-up the team built its season around. Tsunoda goes back to a reserve role covering both Red Bull and Racing Bulls, the position he held before being called up to replace Lawson.

That reserve arrangement means Tsunoda remains on standby for both garages heading into the closing rounds of the season, a role that has already been tested once this year and could be called upon again if either team needs cover.

No Time to Settle Back In on a Street Circuit

There is little room for Hadjar to ease back into a race weekend. The Azerbaijan Grand Prix runs on an altered schedule this year, with practice starting on Thursday and the race itself moved to Saturday to avoid a clash with the country’s Remembrance Day on the Sunday. It is also the first leg of Formula 1’s first triple header of the season, with races in Malaysia and Singapore following on the next two weekends.

Baku’s street circuit, built around the longest straight on the calendar and a run of tight, low speed corners along the old city walls, is an unforgiving place to shake off three races of rust. A single mistake against the barriers can end a session before it has properly started, and Hadjar will have only two practice sessions on Thursday to find his rhythm before qualifying on Friday.

Mercedes Still Runs Away With Both Championships

The timing of Hadjar’s return comes with the rest of the grid fighting over what remains of the 2026 season behind a dominant Mercedes team. Kimi Antonelli continues to lead the Drivers’ Championship by a wide margin, and Mercedes sit well clear of the field in the constructors’ standings, leaving Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari to fight over the places behind them most weekends. A fully fit Verstappen and Hadjar line up gives Red Bull its best chance of chasing those places consistently through a triple header that will test every team’s depth.

A Full Grid Heading Into a Demanding Run of Races

Hadjar’s return brings Red Bull back to full strength at a point in the season where reliability and consistency across three consecutive weekends will matter as much as outright pace. Verstappen arrives in Baku on the back of his strongest run of form in 2026, and having his intended teammate back alongside him removes one of the uncertainties Red Bull has carried through the second half of the year. For Lawson, the return to Racing Bulls comes after a stint the team praised as valuable, giving him three additional race weekends of top level experience heading into the closing rounds of the championship, while Tsunoda heads back into a reserve role he now has three grands prix of fresh racing experience to draw on if he is needed again.

Three Races, No Room for Error

Azerbaijan is only the opening leg of the run. Formula 1 moves straight on to Malaysia the following weekend, where the Sepang circuit has stepped in to host the Bahrain Grand Prix after Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were both removed from this year’s calendar, before a third consecutive race in Singapore closes out the sequence. A driver line up settled back to full strength before the first of those three weekends gives every team on the grid, Red Bull included, one less variable to manage through a stretch of racing that leaves little time for recovery between rounds.

For now, the immediate story is simpler. Hadjar is fit, Verstappen has his regular teammate back, and Lawson and Tsunoda return to the seats they held before the summer break, each with three grands prix of extra experience banked along the way.

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Written by

Jack Renn

Jack Renn is an editor at F1 Chronicle and a veteran motorsport journalist with 25 years of experience covering Formula 1 and international motorsport. A member of the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS), the global body representing accredited sports journalists, Jack has spent his career reporting from paddocks and press rooms across the F1 calendar. His work spans race analysis, technical insight, and in-depth features, giving readers authoritative coverage grounded in decades of firsthand experience at the highest level of the sport.

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