The big news breaking today from the F1 paddock, fresh back from the summer break, is that Isack Hadjar will not be driving his Red Bull Racing car this coming weekend in Zandvoort. Reports suggest he injured his wrist during the summer shutdown.
A Familiar Sub-Driver Scenario for Lawson
Interestingly, Liam Lawson will take the wheel of Hadjar’s RB22 rather than Yuki Tsunoda, who serves as Red Bull’s reserve driver. Instead, the Japanese driver will replace Lawson at Racing Bulls.
There are a number of ironies surrounding this opportunity for Lawson. Firstly, it was a broken wrist for Daniel Ricciardo in Zandvoort three years ago that gave Lawson his big break. Lawson performed admirably in the then-named AlphaTauri, scoring points for a team that was not particularly competitive that season.
The Rollercoaster of Red Bull Politics
Ricciardo returned for the end of that season, but by the US Grand Prix in 2024, he was dropped from the Red Bull sister team and once again replaced by Lawson. With Sergio Pérez being released as Max Verstappen’s teammate at the end of that year, the New Zealander was selected to replace the Mexican at Red Bull Racing.
Yet that moment of promise turned into a nightmare for Lawson, who was far off the pace being set by Verstappen. As a result, Liam was demoted back to Racing Bulls after just the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix.
Tsunoda’s Return and Midfield Reset
Up stepped Yuki Tsunoda to join Verstappen at Red Bull—the driver who, with his years of experience, had initially been expected to fill the role when Pérez left. Lawson returned to Racing Bulls to race alongside rookie Isack Hadjar, though recovering from the trauma of Red Bull’s internal politics took him several race weekends.
Lawson has now raced for more than one team in almost every season of his F1 career. This time, he was the natural choice to step up and replace Hadjar. Arvid Lindblad, the rookie Racing Bulls driver—while impressive—is being protected from too much of the spotlight.
Sprint Race Pressure with Zero Testing
Red Bull has chosen Lawson over Tsunoda presumably due to the fact that the New Zealander is very familiar with this year’s brand-new F1 cars and powertrains. While the Japanese driver has spent time in the simulator, he has had no track time in the current generation of cars.
Liam is currently enjoying a strong season where he is ahead of his teammate, so this weekend’s temporary promotion to Red Bull may prove to be either redemption or the return of the curse that blighted his early 2025 campaign. Adding to the complexity is that this weekend is a Sprint event; both Lawson and Tsunoda will have just one hour of practice before entering competitive action in Sprint Qualifying.
Yuki Tsunoda’s IndyCar Alternatives
When Nico Hülkenberg finally scored a podium at the 2025 British Grand Prix, he ended his run as the driver with the most F1 starts without a podium finish. Now, Tsunoda holds that dubious record alongside Adrian Sutil as the drivers with the most starts without stepping on the podium.
While unlikely, this weekend offers the Japanese driver a chance to break that statistic, as reports this week suggest he is exploring opportunities in IndyCar. He has been linked with the vacant seat at Meyer Shank Racing left by this year’s Indy 500 winner, Felix Rosenqvist, who is making a surprising return to McLaren.
Yuki has also been linked to Dale Coyne Racing as a replacement for promising rookie Dennis Hauger, who appears to be moving to a larger outfit. Both teams are Honda-powered and budget-restrained—unlike the larger Andretti, Penske, Chip Ganassi, and McLaren operations—and Honda has sponsored Yuki throughout his racing career.
Both Alexander Rossi and Marcus Ericsson have proven that being dropped by F1 is not the end of the road for a racing driver. Both drove for smaller F1 teams with little success, but both have gone on to win in IndyCar—each claiming a victory in the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” the Indy 500.
Super Licence Hurdles and Junior Threats
For Hadjar to miss this race weekend in Zandvoort, the injury must be reasonably severe, which means Lawson could remain in the Red Bull for the upcoming string of races. Were it a simple one-week absence, it might have made more sense to put Tsunoda directly in the Red Bull to minimize team upheaval.
One option not open to Red Bull was turning to their latest junior sensation, Nikola Tsolov, who is currently leading the F2 championship in his rookie season. He has taken six race wins from 18 rounds of F2 and is the favorite to claim the title in his first year in the category. However, Tsolov does not yet possess enough points for an F1 Super Licence, having jumped directly into international single-seater racing.
A High-Risk Dilemma for the New Zealander
The comparisons that will be drawn this weekend are fascinating. Were Tsunoda to fare well against Lindblad, it would suggest that Racing Bulls has built an excellent car this season. If the Japanese driver struggles against the rookie, it would imply that Lindblad and Lawson have simply been overperforming.
For Lawson, the primary comparison will be against how Hadjar performed relative to Max Verstappen this year. Yet for him, it is mostly a lose-lose scenario: if he struggles, Red Bull may decide to promote Tsolov for 2027 at Lawson’s expense. The days of a driver simply turning up year in, year out for Red Bull’s junior team are long gone.
This driver shuffle continues a fascinating trend that dates back to the inception of the Formula 1 World Championship in 1950: there has still never been an F1 season in history where every driver who started the opening race stayed with the same team all year without a single substitute or replacement driver being used.
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The Judge, a nom de plume of an experienced F1 journalist and site founder with long-standing sources across the paddock. With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
