The driver poised to be Red Bull’s next Formula 1 graduate made his grand prix weekend debut on Friday at Silverstone.
Arvid Lindblad, Red Bull’s Formula 2 title-challenging protege, took over Yuki Tsunoda’s car for FP1 at the British Grand Prix and lapped half a second slower than Max Verstappen.
Though it was not on the level of McLaren’s Alex Dunne last weekend - who surprised many in the F1 paddock by being incredibly close to championship leader Oscar Piastri on his own FP1 debut - Lindblad’s assured and pretty quick first practice run was enough to impress Red Bull.
“He's a talented young guy, only 17 years of age,” said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner. “To jump into the car here at this circuit, which is a tough circuit, and be only within half a second, I thought he acquitted himself very well.
“His feedback was clear and concise, and he's definitely a prospect for the future.”
Lindblad had a superlicence exemption granted in order to take part in FP1 at Silverstone, and showed a glimpse of why Red Bull rates him so highly. If there is another reshuffle in its line-up this season or next, Lindblad is front of the queue to step up.
His FP1 effort - 14th fastest, 1s off the pace and 0.526s slower than Verstappen - was marginally better position and gap-wise than Tsunoda managed when he reclaimed his car in FP2, even though the laptime itself was slower. This was inevitable, though. And given the track seemed to be around a second quicker later in the afternoon, then corrected to take into account track evolution, Lindblad was bang on Tsunoda’s pace.
Such comparisons are not really the point, especially as attempting to assess two different sessions and run plans like-for-like is just asking to be misled. But a valid takeaway is that Lindblad did well and got a ‘real’ FP1 outing - unlike Isack Hadjar’s Silverstone appearance last year, which was firmly in the category of ‘this is an obligation, don’t crash, that’s your only job’.
Lindblad had the same instruction, but was not nearly as conservative as Hadjar clearly was throughout, even though he did start cautiously. There was a small issue on his first out-lap when he apparently got caught out with traffic and seemed to get stuck between gears, but he regained drive quickly and cracked on with his session.
His first effort was 1.8s slower than Verstappen, and though he complained of front locking at low speed, his second attempt was six tenths quicker - despite braking too late for Turn 3 and clearly running too deep.
As the session progressed, Lindblad tidied things up. There was a hint of trouble brewing when he was told his main losses were Copse and Becketts - just the two fastest parts of the lap! - and Lindblad soon after asked for the gap to Verstappen, and then the specific sector losses to Verstappen.
"The reality is these cars are so fast now, especially coming from what I'm used to, that my mental limit is lower than the car's limit, and my mentality actually going to the session was to really try to push knowing that I'd always be under the limit of the car," Lindblad said.
His next push lap was visibly more aggressive through Copse, running right out onto the exit kerb - but that perhaps served as a little warning, and he reined it in a little thereafter, which perhaps prevented a silly error by focusing too much on matching Verstappen.
Still, he clearly took the losses onboard, as he trimmed the margin down to 0.7s while both were still on medium tyres, and got more confident requesting front wing flap adjustments for a stronger front end on his final medium run and then again for the switch to soft tyres.
That was his best chance to show a turn of speed, and he did well enough - four tenths slower than Verstappen on their first runs, but missing a chance to improve (while Verstappen did) on subsequent runs as he encountered a little bit of traffic on his second attempt and was three tenths slower as the softs faded from their peak on attempt three.
A dig into the data reveals a surprisingly strong effort in the first half of the lap - Lindblad was only a tenth down on Verstappen by Copse - but a big lift, tiny dab of the brakes, and leaving the car in eighth gear while Verstappen never upshifted in the first place, stayed in seventh and did the corner flat cost around a tenth.
Lindblad then bled a little more time through Becketts and Chapel, so the gap was up to 0.25s onto the Hangar Straight. He then dropped two tenths in the final complex, guilty of going in a little too hot - perhaps not exerting enough brake pressure versus Verstappen - and then suffering on both minimum speed and corner exit.
There were hints of Lindblad benefitting from a bit more energy deployment than Verstappen on this run - needing to upshift to eighth on the run to Copse, for example, and no tail-off at the end of the straights - so that did perhaps flatter his final laptime.
But this was never about creating a direct comparison with Verstappen, or Tsunoda when he got back in for FP2. It was part-obligation, part-assessment, using a driver who is highly rated and who has a serious chance of an F1 seat in the future - and who has done that prospect no harm at all while ticking off this milestone.
"After the session was done I really wanted just to get another go," Lindblad said.
"But it's one of those moments that I'm just...most people, basically everyone, doesn't get the opportunity to drive a Formula 1 car.
"So just to get that opportunity, I'm extremely grateful. And I'm focused on working hard and doing a good job in F2 to a full time driver soon."
