Lawson reveals 'tricky' aspect of preparing for two scenarios at Red Bull

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Photo: Red Bull Content Pool
F1 News
Updated: 15:15, 18 Sep
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Red Bull Racing will decide early on next week who will be Max Verstappen's teammate at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Liam Lawson is preparing for both scenarios: driving for Red Bull or Racing Bulls.
After Isack Hadjar suffered a wrist injury ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, Lawson has served as his substitute over the past three weekends. Meanwhile, Yuki Tsunoda replaced the New Zealander at Racing Bulls.
In an exclusive article, GPblog has previously reported that it is still uncertain whether Hadjar would return for the next race, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and that the Austrian outfit wants to wait until Hadjar's completely recovered.

Lawson: 'Going back to Racing Bulls will be tougher'

"I mean, it's more the prep. Doing prep for both is a bit difficult, and getting used to different cars. Coming to the end of the [Madrid] weekend now, I feel quite comfortable in this car. But just going forward, it's the unknown all the way up to the race weekends.
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"It's quite tricky to mentally prepare for what car I'm going to drive," he said.
"But, at the same time, like I said, the more time I drive this, I get more comfortable. Going back now will be quite tough. It's completely different to drive.”
Meanwhile, Lawson once again drove the Racing Bulls car as well. The New Zealander was present at the Pirelli tyre test at Imola on Wednesday,

Mekies on Hadjar's recovery progress

Red Bull Racing team principal Laurent Mekies said about the situation: "Isack is good. He's downstairs. Jokes aside, there is nothing wrong with Isack's recovery. I think we have learned that it's fundamentally normal time for the sort of injuries he has. So we will continue with the same approach than what we had.
"You know, we will evaluate the situations in a week time. We have a full week, a bit more than a full week to evaluate situations to see where how he feels, and then to put him on the simulator, put him to expose him to real-life constraints.
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"And if he feels close to 100%, we go for it. If we feel the recovery is not completed, we will stick on our approach to put his recovery first. What we don't want to do is by having an early return, compromise his long term capacity to come back to 100%."

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Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Overview
Upcoming race
Thursday 24.09.26
Practice 1
Thu 08:30 AM
Practice 2
Thu 12:00 PM
Friday 25.09.26
Practice 3
Fri 08:30 AM
Qualification
Fri 12:00 PM
Saturday 26.09.26
Race
Sat 11:00 AM

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