Liam Lawson confirmed to replace Isack Hadjar at Red Bull for Italian GP

• Liam Lawson will replace the injured Isack Hadjar at Monza alongside Max Verstappen, following his impressive seventh-place finish on his Red Bull return at Zandvoort.
• Hadjar is continuing to recover from his wrist injury with Red Bull taking a cautious approach, while Yuki Tsunoda will remain alongside Arvid Lindblad at Racing Bulls.
• Red Bull junior Ayumu Iwasa will drive Verstappen’s RB22 in FP1 at Monza, with Hadjar’s return date still uncertain ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.

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Liam Lawson will once again replace Isack Hadjar at the upcoming Italian Grand Prix, with Red Bull confirming that the Frenchman continues to recover from a wrist injury sustained during the summer break.

Lawson will once again pilot the RB22 alongside Max Verstappen, having starred on his return to Red Bull at the Dutch Grand Prix to score points with a seventh-place finish.

Racing Bulls, meanwhile, will continue with Yuki Tsunoda alongside Arvid Lindblad. The Japanese former Red Bull driver finished 11th at Zandvoort on his return to Formula 1.

“Liam will drive alongside Max [Verstappen] at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, while Isack continues to make encouraging progress following the wrist injury sustained during the summer break,” a statement from Red Bull said.

“The team is closely monitoring his rehabilitation and will take no unnecessary risks with his return to competition and wishes him a speedy recovery.”

Sharing the same physiotherapist, Carlos J. Garcia, Hadjar was advised by seven-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez to miss the Dutch Grand Prix, encouraging the Frenchman to take the necessary time to recover properly.

Marquez has his own experience with debilitating arm injuries, having sustained a broken right arm and thumb, as well as dislocating both shoulders and suffering from diplopia — injuries that plagued the Spaniard from 2020 through to 2023.

Upon reflecting on their respective drives at Zandvoort, both Lawson and Tsunoda spoke positively overall and emphasised the challenge of adapting to the machinery at such short notice.

“It was good to extract everything out of Quali. It’s been tough to try and get my head around this car in a short space of time, but I’ve enjoyed it,” Lawson said after the race.

While Tsunoda added: “I definitely enjoyed it overall, and yeah, I think I gave it 100%, as much as I can. I think I did pretty okay.”

Red Bull junior Ayumu Iwasa will also take over the reins of Verstappen’s RB22 for Free Practice 1 at Monza, while the timeline for Hadjar’s return remains unclear, with the Spanish Grand Prix at the new Madring circuit set for the week after Italy.

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Written by

Jawad Yaqub

An eCommerce Specialist by day and reporting on F1 by night. Jawad is passionate about motorsport, having provided accredited F1 coverage for more than a decade and is a member of the AIPS (International Sports Press Association). Live blogging (almost) every grand prix too since 2014, as well as articles on the Supercars Championship. Also keen on sustainability, photography, collecting vinyl, (trying to) expertly barbeque and learning to Dad.

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