Racing Bulls boss Alan Permane has indicated Arvid Lindblad is “fortunate” to be making his Formula 1 debut amid the sport’s new regulations cycle.
The British teenager has been promoted by the Red Bull family from his Formula 2 Campos seat to a spot at the Faenza-based squad for this year, alongside Liam Lawson.
Lindblad is highly regarded amongst those in Milton Keynes, but a rapid progression in single-seaters has seen him slated to begin his F1 career at an exceedingly young age.
There was a slight moment of embarrassment for him earlier this week, after a spin in wet and icy conditions at Imola saw him beach the new VCARB 03 on an early shakedown.
But Permane, speaking exclusively to Motorsport Week ahead of the 2025 curtain-closer in Abu Dhabi, believes the new regulation change offers Lindblad a chance to learn at a similar rate.
“Yeah, and it’s a big step from Formula 2 to Formula 1,” he said. “It’s much bigger than the step from, say, Formula 3 to Formula 2.
“It’s another 10 times what that is, so we will, of course, be doing running in our simulator.
“We’re very fortunate, Arvid’s very fortunate, that this season, although we’ve got a regulation change, he will have to get his head around like everyone else will.
“We’ve got triple the days of testing, so we’ve got nine days of testing instead of three days of testing.
“That will help him a lot, so instead of one and a half days, he gets four and a half days, so that’s a big change and I’m sure that will be a big help to him.”
Arvid Lindblad to be ‘given the best preparation’
Lindblad replaces Isack Hadjar, who has been promoted to the full Red Bull team alongside Max Verstappen, after a stellar debut campaign at Racing Bulls in 2025.
At the same weekend, Hadjar told select media including Motorsport Week that he was perhaps joining at the best time for a similar reason – a clean slate for drivers to learn a new car.
Permane offers a devil’s advocate viewpoint that Hadjar perhaps has one extra task, but added that the Red Bull doctrine of producing young talent holds Lindblad in good stead.
“I think you can look at it both ways,” he said. “You could say that Isack’s going to Red Bull and it’s a clean slate, but actually Max has got to learn a new car next year.
“Isack’s got to learn a new team and a new car, so he’s got to do double things.
“So I think you can also argue that if these cars are difficult to drive and next year’s ones become a little bit more benign, then it is an advantage, that’s for sure.
“With Arvid, we’ll just give him the best preparation we can and this team is very good at bringing on the young drivers, helping them where we can, getting that focus on their driving and across the cars and that sort of thing. So we’re looking forward to him starting.”
READ MORE – The ‘superpower’ that will be crucial to Arvid Lindblad’s F1 progress
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