Red Bull has confirmed that 17-year-old Arvid Lindblad will make his debut in Formula 1 race weekend in FP1 at the British Grand Prix.
The news was preceded by Red Bull Advisor Helmut Marco in an interview before the Austrian Grand Prix, but the team itself confirmed that Lindblad would drive Yuki Tsunoda’s car during the opening practice session at Silverstone.
Lindblad turned 18 on August 8th, but was granted special distributions to receive a super license following his application for the FIA.
The Swedish British driver achieved the required super license points by winning the FR Oceania title earlier this year and is currently taking part in the Formula 2 Championship fight in his rookie season at that level. The scoreless weekend in Austria dropped him to sixth in a position 35 points behind leader Richard Vershore.
The team had to run the rookies for four FP1 sessions during the season, and Ayumu Iwasa completed one of Red Bull’s runs in Bahrain. In Racing Bulls, two of the four were completed by Isack Hadjar in the first two races of the season.
Lindblad will join Paul Aron as an alternative driver for Silverstone’s FP1, as Alpine Reserve will also debut on the race weekend, but Aron will drive Sauber as part of a driving service agreement between the two teams. Gabriel Boltret was a weekend rookie of the first two races of the year, so the second of Sauber’s two outings in Hungary will complete the team assignment.