Red Bull has confirmed 17-year-old Arvid Lindblad will make his Formula 1 race weekend debut during FP1 at the British Grand Prix.
The news had been pre-empted by Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko during an interview prior to the Austrian Grand Prix, but the team itself has now confirmed Lindblad will drive Yuki Tsunoda’s car during the opening practice session at Silverstone.
Lindblad only turns 18 on Aug. 8 but was granted special dispensation to receive a Super License following an application to the FIA, with the governing body stating he “has recently and consistently demonstrated outstanding ability and maturity in single-seater formula car competition.”
The British-Swedish driver achieved the necessary Super License points by winning the FR Oceania title earlier this year, and is currently in the fight for the Formula 2 championship in his rookie season at that level. A scoreless weekend in Austria dropped him to sixth in the standings, 35 points behind leader Richard Verschoor.
Teams need to run a rookie for four FP1 sessions during a season, with Ayumu Iwasa completing one of Red Bull’s runs in Bahrain. At Racing Bulls, two of the four were completed by Isack Hadjar in his first two races of the season.
Lindblad joins Paul Aron as a replacement driver in FP1 at Silverstone as the Alpine reserve will also make his race weekend debut, but Aron will drive for Sauber as part of a driving services agreement between the two teams. The second of Aron’s two outings for Sauber – at Hungary – will complete the team’s allocation, as Gabriel Bortoleto was a rookie for the first two race weekends this year.
