Over the past ten years, the Red Bull driver development programme has become a graveyard for young talent. The 2025 season has claimed another victim in Yuki Tsunoda. F1’s latest rookie, Arvid Lindblad, will partner Liam Lawson at Racing Bulls after his promotion from F2.
Who is Arvid Lindblad?
18-year-old Lindblad was born in Surrey to a Swedish father and an Indian mother. He has always raced under the British flag.
Lindblad began competitive karting at age 7. Oliver Rowland, the current Formula E champion, later set up a karting team specifically for Lindblad to race for.
The Briton won the British Karting Championship in 2018 and signed for the Red Bull junior programme two years later. In his first year within the programme, he won the WSK Euro Series and the WSK Final Cup. Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli have also won the Euro Series.
Lindblad was ready for single-seaters, and after meeting the minimum age requirement of 15, he joined the Italian F4 for 2023. He exceeded expectations by winning six races and finishing third in the standings.
In 2024, he raced for PREMA Racing in F3. His season was record-breaking. He became the championship’s youngest ever race winner at age 16 when he won the Bahrain sprint race on debut. At his home race of Silverstone, Lindblad became the first driver to win both races in an F3 weekend. He eventually finished the campaign in 4th place.
2025 so far for Lindblad
2025 began with more success. Lindblad earned a super license (required to compete in F1) by winning the Formula Regional Oceania Championship. He became just the second Briton to do so. The first was this year’s F1 world champion, Lando Norris.
He secured back-to-back promotions by racing for Campos Racing in the 2025 F2 season. Lindblad won races in Saudi Arabia, Spain, and then Abu Dhabi after the news of his third promotion in a row, to F1 for 2026.
He also made his F1 free-practice debut, driving for Red Bull in Britain and Mexico. In the latter, he finished an impressive 6th. Lindblad finished 6th in F2. He was given next year’s Racing Bulls seat ahead of Tsunoda and F2 rival Alex Dunne.
How difficult is his task in F1?
Racing Bulls are Red Bull’s development team. The point of racing for Racing Bulls is essentially to gain experience and then later drive for Red Bull.
They have had six different drivers over the past four seasons. Of those, Tsunoda, Ricciardo and De Vries have been sacked. Gasly has switched teams, and Red Bull promoted Lawson. Two races later, he was demoted.
Isaac Hadjar has now been promoted after an impressive 2025. Lindblad will become driver number seven.
Hadjar has shown that the pathway to success is there. However, Lawson, Lindblad’s new teammate, did the same and then flopped at Red Bull.
Admittedly, Lawson was given the Red Bull seat after just 11 F1 starts, but his swift demotion showed that little time is given to adapt. Some say that he is lucky to have a seat for 2026.
But one of the main reasons that Lawson will have been retained is to provide a benchmark for Lindblad. Rookie Hadjar beat the New Zealander 21-6 in qualifying. The average gap was 0.191 seconds. In the races, he trailed 14-7 and finished on 38 points to Hadjar’s 51.
Lawson will improve. 2026 will only be his second full season. However, Lindblad must show that he is competitive and at least be close to his teammate. If Lawson beats him convincingly, Red Bull and Racing Bulls will not be afraid to make a change.
Is Lindblad’s sixth place in F2 a worry?
By anyone’s standards, Lindblad did well in his only season in F2. Three victories and sixth place overall is good, even more so considering he was just 17.
However, top F1 drivers such as Leclerc, Russell and Piastri won the F2 championship in their rookie seasons. There are question marks over whether Lindblad’s opportunity has come too soon.
Yet results in F2 don’t necessarily reveal everything about a driver. Kimi Antonelli was in Lindblad’s exact situation last year. As a 17-year-old, he finished sixth in his debut F2 campaign. Mercedes paired him with Russell for 2025.
Russell is one of the world’s very best drivers. While he beat Antonelli comfortably across the season, the rookie proved his place in F1. He outqualified Russell five times and finished on the podium in Canada, Brazil and Las Vegas. He also became the youngest ever polesitter at the Miami Sprint.
Similarly, Oliver Bearman finished 12th in F2. Haas gave him a seat. Bearman was one of the most impressive F1 drivers in 2025. He finished on more points than his race-winning team-mate Esteban Ocon and outqualified him 17-12.
Bearman scored five points finishes in a row towards the end of the season, including a fantastic fourth place at Mexico. This was in a car which finished 8th in the constructors’ championship.
The importance of 2026
Lindblad may be young, but talent shines through in F1. He has the speed. His biggest challenge will be how he handles the pressure of motorsports’ biggest competition.
He will know that a poor season may see him dropped like De Vries, but a good one could lead to a promotion to Red Bull. The long-term future of Max Verstappen isn’t secured. Hadjar has an almighty task as his latest team-mate.
Lindblad mustn’t look too far ahead. Red Bull clearly has much faith in their latest rookie. Now is the time for him to show what he can do.