Final Helmut Marko recruit breaks silence on promotion to a Red Bull F1 team

The final Helmut Marko recruit to break into Formula 1, Arvid Lindblad says Marko “believed in me when others didn’t”, and for that he is “very grateful”.

2025 has been a year of change, and pending changes, for Red Bull and its second team Racing Bulls as the former said farewell to Christian Horner, welcomed Laurent Mekies, and in turn Alan Permane was made team principal at Racing Bulls.

Arvid Lindblad will be the sole F1 rookie in 2026

The drivers also changed with Liam Lawson promoted to Red Bull only to be demoted back to Racing Bulls, and Yuki Tsunoda moving in the other direction.

But when all was said and done at the end of the 2025 season, Tsunoda was completely sidelined to a reserve driver role, Isack Hadjar promoted to Red Bull and Lindblad placed in Racing Bulls alongside Lawson.

And then came the final huge announcement, Marko would be stepping down from his role as Red Bull’s motorsport advisor.

The 82-year-old, who had played an instrumental role in Red Bull’s success over the last two decades and brought the likes of Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen into the sport while leading Red Bull’s famed driver academy, would be leaving.

His last throw of the dice: Arvid Lindblad.

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The 18-year-old, who had been a member of Red Bull’s junior team since 2021, Lindblad will race in Formula 1 next season when he steps up from Formula 2, where he was P6 with Campos Racing, to Racing Bulls.

At the end of a stint that saw Red Bull claim eight Drivers’ titles and seven Constructors’, Lindblad is Marko’s final hurrah in Formula 1. And he’s well aware of what that means.

“It’s quite a big thing,” Lindblad said as per the official F1 website. “I mean, I’ve worked very closely with them the last couple years, Rocky [Guillaume Rocquelin, Head of the Red Bull Driver Academy] and Dr Marko and the whole team. I’m extremely grateful for their support and all the work we’ve done, but especially with Dr Marko.

“It’s not been the easiest year for me. I’m not happy with how it’s gone, but he believed in me when others didn’t, and I’m very grateful for that.

“I find it funny when a lot of people say how difficult it can be to work with him, their stories of how they struggled to work with Dr Marko, how he’s very difficult and people are scared of him. For me, it’s always been the opposite. I’ve always had a very good relationship with him.

“There are certain things he wants to see, and I mean, I can’t talk for others and their experience, but I’ve always had a very good relationship with him, and he’s helped my career massively. The fact that he believed in me when others didn’t, I’m very grateful towards him, because this opportunity wouldn’t have come without him.

“I don’t really like excuses and when people talk rubbish, and he doesn’t do that – he just says the truth, and I like to do the same. I think on that side, it’s helped me.

“It’s helped me to learn the best way, helped me progress the fastest, because he just says the truth and the way things have been. And I appreciate that honesty as well, because there are a lot of people in motorsport who want you to tell them what they want to hear.”

Lindblad will be the sole rookie on the F1 2026 grid and covered his final laps of 2025 in the young driver test at Abu Dhabi behind the wheel of the Racing Bulls VCARB 02. He was just 0.014s slower than his 2026 teammate Lawson.

“I’ve been doing a lot on the sim with [Red Bull]. I have been for a while now, already started a bit last year, and then obviously, I’ve been doing some of the FP1s, a little bit of TPC [Testing of Previous Cars] running. So I’ve been doing a lot of work with Red Bull.

“I think that it isn’t just F2 that has helped the decision [to choose me] for next year. I’ve been working closely with [Red Bull] for a long time. It’s my fifth year on the programme, so I have a very close relationship with all of them.”

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