‘He will be prepared’ – Former F1 race winner excited for Arvid Lindblad’s rookie season

Arvid Lindblad is Formula 1’s newest and youngest driver and he is already impressing former racing drivers.

The 18-year-old Briton was announced to be driving for Red Bull Racing’s junior team, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls in December 2025.

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Lindblad received his promotion from Formula 2, the junior racing category, and will be teammates with Kiwi Liam Lawson in the upcoming season.

Last season saw a raft of rookies arrive, with Isack Hadjar, Kimi Antonelli, Oliver Bearman, Franco Colapinto, Gabriel Bortoleto, Lawson, and Jack Doohan all having varying levels of success.

Doohan’s early exit from Alpine and Lawson’s demotion to Racing Bulls from Red Bull showed just how tough it can be at the top for a young driver.

Johnny Herbert, who drove in Formula 1 between 1989-2000, spoke to talkSPORT ahead of the Miami E-Prix in Formula E, and he believes he has the right attributes to be a success.

He said: “I see it as you have a toolbox, you have a certain amount of tools and you use them and make the best of those tools with what you’ve got.

“Their toolbox is now a roller cabinet, they have so many from the simulators to the data.

“I remember only having three or four points of data – throttle, braking, maybe ride height and probably a little bit of G force and that was sort of it, very basic stuff.

“And the computer that we had was actually me, as the driver, we were the ones having to tell the team and the engineers what the car was feeling like and what direction we felt would benefit us in lap time.

“He did a hell of a lot when he was doing his younger formulas, Formula 2, Formula 3, and it will carry on as he goes into Formula 1.

“So he’s been able to learn those tool sets which will be very much needed for when he gets in the racecar.”

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Lindblad competed in the Formula 2 Championship with Campos Racing and became the youngest F2 race winner ever in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. 

The Surrey-born driver is joining the top category of motorsport at only 18 years old and there are concerns about how he will handle the pressure.

His predecessor, Hadjar, who is now at Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen, impressed in his first season, however his first race in Australia saw him crash on the formation lap.

Herbert compared the two drivers and the added pressures they face with social media.

He said: “Will he be prepared for when he gets to the first race? Absolutely. Testing is actually that extra little piece where you’ve got the feeling of the car.

“The simulator is not quite the same, the environment is completely different, the pressure is very different. There’s no pressure when you’re in a simulator.

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“I think there’s going to be very excited British fans, but also fans across the world that are going to be very impressed with him.

“I met him when he was 14 years old when I was karting at Shennington, he was a very confident young man back then.

“And he’s definitely grown a lot since then mentally, it will be very exciting to see him.”

Over the winter break, Lindblad has been preparing for his first season in F1 by travelling to India to connect with his mother’s Punjabi heritage and explored the local culture.

Whilst there he headlined a Red Bull F1 show run in Delhi, driving a racing car in the streets of the country.