Red Bull's likely F1 reserve secures super license

Feb.18 (GMM) The next in line for a seat at Red Bull’s second Formula 1 team, Racing Bulls, is clearly Arvid Lindblad.

With Liam Lawson stepping up to become Max Verstappen’s teammate this year, and rookie Isack Hadjar replacing Lawson at Racing Bulls, the energy drink-owned F1 concern is notably missing an obvious reserve driver for 2025.

But a British-born Swedish 17-year-old, Lindblad, impressed Red Bull so much in his first Formula 3 season last year that he has already secured a promotion to F2.

Lindblad is clearly being fast-tracked to Formula 1, with his recent participation in the Formula Regional Oceania series in New Zealand helping him secure enough points for a F1 super license.

“Honestly, I don’t know all the ins and outs of it,” he said. “I was just told ‘we want you to go to New Zealand, we want you to have the full super license before the start of the F1 season’.

“I am very aware that it is all good, but we know that the performance in F2 will dictate whether I get an F1 opportunity or not, so that’s what I am focused on at the moment,” Lindblad added.

It is also believed Red Bull is setting up a ‘TPC’ test program for Lindblad this year to at least give him plenty of experience in a two-year-old F1 car.

“He is definitely our greatest (new) talent,” said Red Bull F1 advisor Dr Helmut Marko. “He is definitely the one who is pushing himself from the back to the front of the queue with his performances.”

La Gazzetta dello Sport also quotes Marko as crowning Lindblad “the champion of tomorrow” in F1.

“What makes this guy exceptional is his pure speed,” the 81-year-old added. “We are looking for a new champion and he might have what it takes.

“In one of the Formula 3 races he overtook 10 or 14 drivers in a single lap,” said Marko. “He won the race starting last in difficult conditions of wet, dry and so on.”

Marko has admitted several times in the past that he assesses future champions not only based on their on-track antics, but the way they conduct themselves off the track as well.

Recalling the first time he met Lindblad, the Austrian explained: “He and his father were there but it was Arvid, even though he was only 12, who led the whole conversation.

“He already had a clear vision and a clear way to realise it and since then he has moved forward steadily.”