- Arvid Lindblad is a rare talent who currently drives for Red Bull’s young driver programme. He made his Formula 2 debut in 2025 with Campos Racing and has been making a name for himself. The Swede has had impressive performances in the past as well, standing third in the Italian F4 Championship with Prema in 2023.
Formula 3 was where the young driver shined. Lindblad drove for Prema for his F3 campaign, scored four victories and placed 4th in the driver’s championship in 2024, moving him to F2 for 2025. All of these impressive performances caught the eye of Red Bull who decided to promote him to reserve driver status. But there is a slight problem, Lindblad is only 17.
Red Bull appeals for license exemption for Arvid Lindblad
FIA states that a driver needs to be at least 18 years old to receive a super license, which is required to drive in Formula 1. However, there can be exceptions. The team that the driver belongs to can send a formal appeal to the ruling authority to grant the driver an exception.
Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s advisor, recently revealed that the Austrian team have filed for an exemption for Arvid Lindblad. Red Bull wants to onboard Lindblad ASAP and they are not willing to wait till August, when the Swede turns 18.
🚨 | OFFICIAL: Arvid Lindblad graduates to F2, joining Campos Racing for the 2025 season.
The Red Bull Junior Academy driver secured 4 wins in his rookie F3 season with Prema.#F1 #AzerbaijanGP pic.twitter.com/UfweuPMNRo
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) September 12, 2024
Lindblad won’t be able to compete in F1 since Red Bull already has Ayumu Iwasa as a reserve. However, Iwasa’s Super Formula campaign will render him unavailable for most of the calendar. Hence, Red Bull wants a backup reserve driver should need be.
“We have Ayumu Iwasa as our reserve driver,” Marko told Auto Motor und Sport. “Lindblad has the points for the super license. We also completed a 300km test with him in a Formula One car at Imola, so he could theoretically step in.”
“But he doesn’t turn 18 until August. That’s why we’re currently applying to the FIA for an exemption for the super license. [Kimi] Antonelli got it, too. We see no reason why the same shouldn’t be true for Lindblad. Then we’d already have two drivers on the bench.” added Marko.
Kimi Antonelli was one of the recent drivers that got the super license exemption, so the case should be the same for Arvid Lindblad.
Red Bull are seriously impressed with Arvid Lindblad’s drives and with how things stand, they may even promote him to F1, should the driver impress further in F2.
Max Verstappen was the reason for FIA’s Super License rule
Max Verstappen’s rise in Formula 1 started with Toro Rosso, which was the former identity of Racing Bulls. The 4-time-champion debuted in an FP1 session for the junior team at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.
At the time of his debut and his eventual full-time seat, the Dutch driver was only 17 years old. This brought in several concerns from teams, which prompted FIA to bring out the new regulation that stated that the drivers should be 18 years old to get a Super License and compete in Formula 1.
Arvid Lindblad is now face-to-face with his first feature race of Formula 2 at Melbourne, and his fans are loyally supporting their favorite driver.
