Isack Hadjar to miss third straight F1 race in Madrid as Liam Lawson steps into RB22 alongside Verstappen

Red Bull Racing has confirmed that Isack Hadjar will remain sidelined for the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid – the third consecutive race he will miss. The cause is still the wrist injury that has not fully healed. Liam Lawson, a driver who previously held a full-time seat at Red Bull, will replace Hadjar in the RB22 alongside Max Verstappen. Yuki Tsunoda will stay at Racing Bulls, while the junior team has not yet confirmed who will replace Hadjar in the remaining car. The announcement was made on Monday evening, just days before the official media activities for the Madrid round begin. The timing suggests that the medical and engineering departments carefully considered Hadjar's condition before finalising the driver line-up. Hadjar will attend the circuit, but only to support the team in engineering meetings and observe from the pit wall. His fitness to race will be assessed again at the next rounds. This decision must be viewed against the 2026 season context – the first year of an entirely new technical regulation cycle covering power units and active aerodynamics. The Madrid circuit also replaces Barcelona on the calendar for the first time. In a season where every team is still searching for balance with new cars, losing a full-time driver for three consecutive races is a significant blow. Red Bull's RB22 will have to rely on data from a substitute driver who has not had continuous work with the engineers and does not have the accumulated mileage that Hadjar had built up. Liam Lawson is not a stranger to Red Bull. The word return in the announcement indicates that Lawson previously held this seat, then was moved down to Racing Bulls or lost his full-time position. Now he has been called up to stand in for Hadjar for three races – enough time to prove his value, but short enough to create enormous pressure. Lawson will be compared directly with Max Verstappen, the toughest benchmark in Formula 1. If Lawson performs well, the question over Hadjar's seat will immediately grow. If Lawson struggles, Red Bull will again face the problem of a second driver failing to score consistently. More notable is the situation of Yuki Tsunoda. The Japanese driver stays at Racing Bulls for another race. On the surface, this is simply a continuation of the existing line-up. But with Red Bull needing a replacement for Hadjar, Tsunoda being overlooked for the main team repeats an old pattern. Tsunoda has spent years as a consistent, point-scoring driver for Racing Bulls, yet whenever Red Bull needs personnel, the leadership looks elsewhere. If Red Bull genuinely had a choice between Lawson and Tsunoda and chose Lawson, that is a clear signal about internal priorities. Red Bull may believe Lawson has the raw speed to match Verstappen, but in terms of experience and consistency, Tsunoda would be the safer option. Being passed over again could push Tsunoda to consider a new team when his contract allows. The biggest gap in the announcement is the second Racing Bulls seat. Hadjar is absent, Lawson has been promoted to Red Bull, so who will drive the other Racing Bulls car in Madrid? So far, the team has not named a replacement. This leaves two possibilities: either Red Bull already has a reserve driver within its academy and will announce them later, or the decision is still being discussed. Either way, the junior team is at a disadvantage in the constructors' battle. A substitute driver who has not driven this car in the season is unlikely to score points immediately in the third round. Racing Bulls may have to rely almost entirely on Tsunoda to protect its position in the standings. From a technical perspective, Hadjar's absence affects more than race results. Driver feedback is essential for engineers to guide car development. In the first three races of the 2026 season, when every team is trying to understand the new regulations, each lap from Hadjar would have provided valuable data. Lawson brings his own experience, but he lacks continuity in translating car feeling across practice sessions. Hadjar will be in the engineering meetings in Madrid to help partially, but that support cannot replace being in the cockpit and feeling how the RB22 responds through high-speed corners, especially given the heavy physical load on the wrist during steering inputs. A wrist injury for an F1 driver is not simply a matter of rest. The 2026 cars are expected to produce high lateral G-forces and require constant steering control. If Hadjar returns too early, the risk of aggravation is high. If he returns too late, he will lose race rhythm and could find Lawson taking his seat. The message that his recovery is progressing positively is a standard diplomatic form of words in the paddock. It does not confirm the severity of the injury, nor does it provide a specific timetable. Red Bull is deliberately leaving open the possibility of a later return, or simply wants to keep maximum flexibility in its driver planning. From a competitive standpoint, Red Bull is accepting unnecessary risk in a regulation-change year. Rivals with stable driver line-ups will use this phase to score points and develop their cars. Using a substitute driver for three consecutive races shows Red Bull believes in the depth of its roster, but it also exposes how much the team's personnel planning has been disrupted by injury. In a normal season, three missed races would be a minor issue. But in a season where every team is still finding its way in the dark, continuity of driver feedback becomes an invisible advantage that money cannot buy. Ultimately, the biggest unanswered question is not about Hadjar or Lawson, but about Tsunoda and the empty Racing Bulls seat. Tsunoda remains stuck in an almost loop. Lawson has a third chance to convince the management. Hadjar faces the possibility of losing his seat even after he recovers. And some unknown driver, perhaps from the Red Bull academy, will appear in Madrid without much attention. For Red Bull, who sits in the RB22 this weekend matters far more than how many points the team collects. Because in 2026, the second seat is not just a race seat – it is the ticket that decides who will help shape the team's future in a new regulatory era.