JACQUES: ‘Raw speed and adaptability under pressure’ – Why Racing Bulls are taking a chance on Lindblad

Arvid Lindblad will be the new kid on the block next year in Formula 1 after he was announced as Liam Lawson’s team mate at Racing Bulls for 2026. F1 TV commentator Alex Jacques explains why Red Bull are taking a chance on a driver who is still only 18-years-old…

The British-Swedish racer, born to a Swedish father and Indian mother, became the youngest ever F2 winner in Jeddah this season at just 17-years-old, and at Silverstone in Formula 3 last year he became the first driver to win both the Sprint and Features races in a weekend.

In doing so he displayed both raw speed and adaptability under pressure – the two traits valued most highly by Formula 1 bosses in modern times.

On paper his junior career is not the headline grabbing run of an Oscar Piastri, George Russell or Charles Leclerc. There’s been no title double in Formula 3 and Formula 2, or even a realistic challenge for either of those crowns.

His CV comprises a single season securing fourth place with Prema Racing in the 2024 Formula 3 Championship, and this season he secured two wins in Formula 2 where he sits in sixth position with two races of the campaign to go.

This season Lindblad was placed with the same Campos team as 2025 F1 rookie Isak Hadjar, giving Red Bull a trusted outfit to develop their young driver.

And it feels like the teenage racer has driven with the same confidence of his predecessor: trusting that promotion was assured if he met his set objectives.

In days of old, fourth and sixth place championship finishes would not have been enough for the most cut throat team in F1, but in recent times things have changed.

That Lindblad’s promotion feels so similar to Hadjar’s is a testament to head of the programme Guillaume Rocquelin, who has brought wisdom to a set up which had started to drift.

Incredibly, the Faenza team which Lindblad is joining had once signed Brendon Hartley after the New Zealander sent Helmut Marko a text asking if they had any drives going.

Similarly they re-signed Alex Albon in 2019 after dropping him from the programme years previously. Albon went from no F1 drive in November 2018 to Max Verstappen’s team mate by August 2019. There was a lack of rhyme or reason to the moves.

Such haphazard recruitment has diminished in recent times. Rocquelin takes a wider view, focusing on evidence of improvement rather than just pure results.

This stands in sharp contrast to the 2010’s era where Pierre Gasly was told “win GP2 and you’ll be promoted to F1” only to be told he hadn’t won the title convincingly enough and he was sent for an extra year of junior racing in Japan.

None of this context is to diminish Lindblad’s talent behind the wheel because it is sizeable. But the young charger has benefited from Red Bull modernising their approach.

So what can Racing Bulls expect from their new driver?

In his younger years Lindblad claimed multiple karting titles and the prestigious Formula 4 Macau street race victory, and after Red Bull identified him in their words as a “generational talent” they signed him at 14 years of age.

That put Lindblad on a steep learning curve each year but it’s a path he’s thrived on. Under the mentorship of F2 race winner and FIA Formula E champion Oliver Rowland, Lindblad believes the Yorkshireman – a hugely naturally talented driver in his own right – has helped him understand how to be competitive when jumping through the motorsport pyramid in consecutive years.

“To have someone with that knowledge and capability, helping to guide me, has been instrumental to my transition, because it is a massive step,” he said last year.

Lindblad’s drive at Silverstone’s F3 Feature race last year was a standout performance. At a circuit he’d somehow never driven before he mastered the greasy conditions on slick tyres to take victory.

Winning in low grip conditions never goes unnoticed higher up the ladder, and to sweep an F3 weekend in an ultra-competitive 30-car championship was hugely impressive.

After many TPC (Testing of Previous Cars) tests in two-year-old F1 machinery showed Racing Bulls he had the foundation for Formula 1, Red Bull were further delighted by FP1 runs in Silverstone and Mexico City – especially the latter which saw Lindblad use different tyre compounds effectively and outpace regular driver Yuki Tsunoda with a fine run to P6.

Affable in the paddock and well liked by team personnel, Lindblad once had the confidence to sidle up to Lando Norris and proclaim “I want you to remember me, I’ll see you in five years”.

In March 2026 he will deliver on his promise and will share the grid with the British driver.