Red Bull team principal has opened up on Isack Hadjar’s health status after the French driver returned to action at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Hadjar had missed the previous three races with a broken wrist sustained while training over the summer break, being replaced by Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson, but was finally ruled fit to return in Baku.
That return went swimmingly, with the 21-year-old (22 today, happy birthday Isack) converting fourth place on the grid into third in the race to secure the team’s first double podium finish since the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix 57 races earlier.
Mekies called his driver’s weekend ‘outstanding’ after Saturday’s action concluded, revealing that Hadjar was in no pain while driving the car – the goal the team had set to bring him back.
Red Bull boss says Hadjar ‘back at 100 per cent’ after injury
“It was outstanding what Isack produced this weekend, really outstanding,” he said.
“At first, the most important thing is that he felt straight away good in the car, no pain, which means that everything we knew, every time that we met together in the last few weeks, and we said we would wait for Isack to come back at 100 per cent, because that’s a priority.
“Well, that’s what happened: He was in the car; he didn’t have any pain.”
Mekies: Hadjar raced cleverly with Verstappen
Mekies also praised Hadjar’s racecraft, particularly at a difficult track and on an afternoon where he and team-mate Max Verstappen were often running within a second of each other on track.
“Nonetheless, even without pain, it’s not an easy track to go back to, because there’s no margin for error,” he said. “And he has been building up his rhythm, session after session, very calmly, with a lot of positive energy.
“Already [in qualifying] to stick the car in P4 was a very, very strong result. The sort of race pace he showed on the medium, on the soft, is something that we had not seen before.
“So on the weekend of his return, he has raised the bar again. We say to each other very often that we have seen him adding something to the business every time he was going out on the track in the first part of the season; well, he is continuing to do that.
“And on top of that, allow me to say, he also raced extremely cleverly with Max. Very disciplined with his tyres, and it allowed us to have very strong teamwork between the two, between the pit wall, and ultimately produce the best result possible.”
