Red Bull junior replaces Yuki Tsunoda in Silverstone

Arvid Lindblad stepped into the second Red Bull seat this Friday for his first FP1 session of his career, taking the place of Tuki Tsunoda. The Red Bull junior driver is currently racing for Campos in Formula 2 where he sits P6 in the standings ahead of the feature race at Silverstone this coming Sunday.

Lindblad is only 17 years old, so, much like we saw Mercedes do with their now full-time racer, Kimi Antonelli, Red Bull had to obtain his super license from the FIA. A super license is the driver qualification to be able to drive in Formula 1, but the minimum age cutoff is 18, so anyone younger must be approved by the FIA.

Red Bull sees lots of potential in the British racer as he has a very strong track record in his racing career. In 2023, when racing with Prema, he came P3 in the Italian F4 championship but 1st in the Macau F4 race. Last year he placed P4 in the F3 championship and now in his rookie F2 season has already claimed 2 wins, his first in the Jeddah sprint race, but in Spain took the trophy for the feature race. His career has shone so far like the trophies on his shelf and it comes as no surprise that Christian Horner (the Red Bull team principal) would want him to build more experience in their F1 car.

His FP1 session this Friday was nothing short of impressive, ending P14 in his first outing in the RB21. Max Verstappen was only 4 positions ahead of him in a car that has been said to be a very tricky drive. Small, but easily correctable mistakes were made such as braking too early and not putting more throttle into certain corners. However, this was expected with his lack of experience and doesn’t take away from his outstanding drive on home soil, which he described as a “very special moment.”

The Red Bull second seat has been beaming with headlines recently in the world of F1, as Liam Lawson was replaced quite early on by Yuki Tsunoda due to underperformance, but now with Yuki having only scored 4 points since Japan, are talks being held about his replacement? The car has not been up to par recently and is not the rocket ship we saw in 2023, perhaps due to the departure of head of engineering Adrian Newey last season. Though Max Verstappen has been struggling, he has managed to have consistent points and Red Bull seems to be looking for a driver to do the same so, could that be Arvid Lindblad?

It is likely we will see Arvid take to a Red Bull car soon enough, whether in an FP1 session or full time, as it seems to be a similar story to Mercedes last season with Kimi Antonelli. With rumours of Verstappen to leave for Mercedes, a seat does seem to be freeing up for Lindblad to take for himself.