Red Bull junior issues statement after FIA confirm Belgian GP disqualification
Will Red Bull rise again?
Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad has issued a statement after being disqualified from the F2 feature race at last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.
Lindblad finished second on the road in Sunday’s feature race at Spa as Rodin driver and McLaren F1 junior Alex Dunne took victory.
Red Bull junior disqualified by FIA after Belgian Grand Prix tyre breach
Dunne was given a 10-second penalty after the race after he was found to have failed to follow the start procedure on the formation lap.
The Irish driver’s punishment should have handed the win to Lindblad, yet the Campos racer found himself excluded after a post-race investigation.
Lindblad’s tyre pressures were found to be below the minimum amount set by Pirelli in wet conditions, with all four of his tyres underneath the required pressures of 16.0 PSI at the front and 14.0 PSI at the rear.
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The Campos team accepted the breach with a team representative admitting he observed the adjustment of Lindblad’s tyre pressures and had no objections at the time.
Victory in the feature race was eventually taken by Roman Stanek, the 21-year-old Czech driver, who collected his first victory of the 2025 season.
In a statement posted to social media, Lindblad said that he and Campos were denied “what we deserved” in Belgium.
And he vowed to come back fighting at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, the 10th round of the F2 campaign.
He said: “Spa wasn’t what we worked for. I gave everything. I maximised what was in my control but other factors denied us what we deserved.
“I’ll keep on fighting and push with the team. We will be back in Budapest.”
Isack Hadjar, the Racing Bulls F1 driver who finished second in the F2 standings last year, was among those to ‘like’ Lindblad’s post.
Lindblad’s disqualification comes as a fresh blow to his F2 title hopes with the teenager scoring just five points across the last three race weekends.
He now trails F2 championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli by 41 points with five rounds remaining.
Lindblad made his maiden FP1 appearance for Red Bull at the British Grand Prix earlier this month, driving Yuki Tsunoda’s car in the first hour of practice at Silverstone.
He was classified 14th, lapping around half a second slower than reigning four-time World Champion Max Verstappen.
The British-Swede’s FP1 outing came just weeks after he was granted an exemption for an F1 Super Licence by the FIA, theoretically allowing him to race in Formula 1 before his 18th birthday on August 8.
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Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after Lindblad’s run at Silverstone, Christian Horner, the now-former Red Bull team principal, described the youngster as a “prospect for 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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