The new Verstappen in the making? Lindblad chases F1, but is he ready by now?

After his demotion to Racing Bulls, Liam Lawson hoped to rediscover himself, but for now, the New Zealander remains the lesser of two drivers at Red Bull Racing's sister team. As results continue to delay, speculation about his future at Racing Bulls emerges, especially if Arvid Lindblad, the new top talent of the Red Bull Junior Team, makes an indelible impression in Formula 2.

The good news for Lawson: Lindblad is already good, but so far, the Brit with Swedish roots has not been able to consistently prove that he is already clearly F1 material. Of course, the seventeen-year-old won the sprint race in Saudi Arabia and last weekend in Imola he secured a second place in also the sprint race, thereby absolutely showing his potential.

At the same time, it's important to emphasise that these were both sprint races, and Lindblad has yet to stand on the podium in a longer feature race. Partially, this can be attributed to his results in qualifying, where he finished fourteenth, sixteenth, fifth, and sixth respectively.

At a sprint race, the top ten are reversed - which is not the case in the feature race. In other words: the faster drivers of that particular weekend are in front of him (and not behind), and Lindblad then lacks that extra class to compete with them for a podium position.

Is this a potential problem? Certainly not, because Lindblad is the youngest driver on the F2 grid and his development is extremely fine. What the Brit needs and deserves is patience, as he has regularly shown that he truly is a future F1 driver. Just not yet.

Lindblad himself describes his season so far as ‘okay’. "I knew going into the year it was going to be challenging, obviously," he said last weekend in Imola. "It's the penultimate rung on the ladder, now this is sort of the highest level before Formula One. I've come through quite quickly, I'm still the youngest on the grid. I'm still very inexperienced, so I'm learning a lot.

An additional difficulty for Lindblad is that the entire motorsport world is watching him, since he has been touted as The Next Big Thing. It wouldn’t be surprising if Lindblad eventually becomes the natural successor of Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing. But Lindblad himself doesn’t want to hear about pressure.

"I think the world's watching everyone now," he answers the question from GPblog. "I don't think there's any more eyes on me than the rest. I mean, we're all trying to perform and prove why we should be in Formula One.

For his development, it seems beneficial that Red Bull allows their gem the time to develop himself as a driver and not to give him a place in Formula 1 this season, for instance if Liam Lawson does not show improvement. Unlike Andrea Kimi Antonelli with Mercedes last year, Lindblad is not undergoing an intense testing program with older F1 cars. For now, he has completed a single test last February.

However, it is expected that Red Bull Racing and/or Racing Bulls will employ Lindblad at some point during 2025 in a free practice session in Formula 1. "I don't know. You’ll have to talk to Red Bull," said the Brit about the matter.