Hadjar's only F1 podium came at Zandvoort, and he will miss the race entirely
One wrist injury just moved three Red Bull-family drivers into different seats for one weekend.
Isack Hadjar will sit out this weekend's Dutch Grand Prix after injuring his wrist during a gym session over the summer break. Liam Lawson steps up from Racing Bulls to take his seat at Red Bull, and Yuki Tsunoda returns to Formula 1 to fill the gap Lawson leaves behind.
The injury
Hadjar hurt his wrist during a gym session in the summer shutdown, reportedly while boxing. Red Bull confirmed this week that he will not race at Zandvoort, wishing him a speedy recovery and thanking Lawson for stepping in on short notice.
The domino effect
Lawson moves up to the Red Bull seat he held for the opening two rounds of 2025, before he was dropped back to the sister team. Tsunoda, Red Bull's reserve driver and a 111-race veteran, takes the seat Lawson leaves open at Racing Bulls, lining up alongside rookie Arvid Lindblad. It is a reunion of sorts: Hadjar and Tsunoda shared driving duties in the RB17 hypercar at Goodwood only last month. Racing Bulls thanked both drivers for their adaptability.
Why Zandvoort stings
Hadjar's only Formula 1 podium came at this exact circuit last year, a third place for Racing Bulls that remains the highlight of his career so far. Missing the one race where he has already stood on the podium, in the middle of a run of seven straight points finishes, is a brutal way to lose a weekend.
The championship picture
Hadjar currently sits eighth in the standings. Lawson, the man replacing him, sits ninth, one place and 25 points behind. A strong weekend in the faster Red Bull could close that gap in a single afternoon, at the expense of the driver Lawson is filling in for.
Why now
Zandvoort is Max Verstappen's home race, and this is the final Dutch Grand Prix before the circuit drops off the calendar, a farewell we already covered when Verstappen unveiled a Delftware-inspired helmet for the occasion. Verstappen's actual teammate misses that farewell through injury, while two other Red Bull-family drivers reshuffle seats around him for a single weekend.
AutoNext Take
Losing a race weekend to a gym injury is bad luck, not a story about driver management, and it would be wrong to read anything sinister into it. What is worth noting is how comfortably Red Bull absorbed the hit. Lawson slots back into the senior seat as if his demotion barely happened, Tsunoda gets an unplanned return, and Racing Bulls still fields two capable drivers alongside a rookie. Few other teams on the grid could shuffle three contracted drivers around a single injury without missing a beat.
That depth is also the uncomfortable part of being a Red Bull-affiliated driver. Lawson lost this exact seat after two rounds in 2025 and is only back in it because a teammate got hurt, not because the team changed its mind about him. If he has a strong weekend at Zandvoort, the story next week will not be about Hadjar's recovery. It will be about whether Red Bull just found its answer for 2027.
