Max Verstappen record safe as Red Bull window closes after rare FIA ruling
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen prepares for the start of the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix
Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad has missed the chance to make his F1 debut before his 18th birthday after being granted a rare Super Licence exemption by the FIA.
It means Max Verstappen’s record as the only 17-year-old to race in F1 is safe.
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Lindblad, widely regarded as the most exciting Red Bull-backed youngster since Verstappen, was granted an F1 Super Licence in June in a landmark decision by F1’s governing body.
The FIA’s decision to grant Lindblad an exemption theoretically gave the British-Swede driver hope of racing in F1 before he turned 18 on August 8.
Red Bull took advantage of the decision by handing the then-17-year-old, currently competing in the Formula 2, his first appearance on an official F1 race weekend at last month’s British Grand Prix.
Lindblad drove Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull RB21 in FP1 at Silverstone, posting the 14th-fastest time and lapping just half a second slower than Verstappen, the reigning four-time World Champion.
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Yet with Verstappen and Tsunoda in place at Red Bull’s senior team, and Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson both impressing at sister outfit Racing Bulls, a mid-season F1 promotion has not materialised.
The recent Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest marked the final chance for Lindblad to race in F1 as a 17-year-old, with the youngster celebrating his 18th birthday last Friday.
Verstappen famously made his F1 debut aged 17 with Racing Bulls (then Toro Rosso) at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, becoming the youngest driver in the sport’s history in the process.
The Dutchman’s rapid rise resulted in the FIA imposing a minimum age restriction for the first time in F1 history, preventing drivers younger than 18 from competing.
Lindblad became the first driver to secure a Super Licence exemption since the rules were tightened.
Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after Lindblad’s outing at Silverstone, the recently sacked Red Bull team principal Christian Horner hailed the teenager as a potential star of the future.
Horner said: “I thought he acquitted himself very well. He’s obviously another product of the junior team.
“He’s a talented young guy, only 17 years of age. To jump into the car here at this circuit, which is a tough circuit, and be only within half a second, I thought he acquitted himself very well.
“His feedback was clear and concise and he’s definitely a prospect for the future.”
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Verstappen himself recently urged Lindblad to “be himself” rather than aspire to becoming “the next Max.”
The World Champion said: “He raced for my best friend’s go-kart team, so I already had a bit of information on him.
“He’s great. He’s very fast and he just needs to do it step by step.
“I think the way that Red Bull also is preparing him is good. He just needs to do his thing.
“Being labelled as the next Max, he should just be himself. That’s what you need to focus on.
“I think that’s also what he knows how to do. He has good people around him that are like a mentor to him. So, yep, step by step. I’m happy for him. He’s doing well.
“Let’s see what happens when he eventually can get into F1.”
Lindblad, driving for the Campos team, currently sits a distant seventh in the F2 standings, trailing leader Leonardo Fornaroli by 62 points with just four rounds of the 2025 season remaining.
The teenager’s title hopes have suffered a number of blows over recent weeks, having been disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix feature race after his tyres were found to be beneath the minimum pressures set by Pirelli.
A week later, Lindblad was hit with a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage in battle with another driver in Hungary, dropping him from fourth to 10th in the sprint race.
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