Arvid Lindblad makes Silverstone F1 debut and Red Bull chief's five-word verdict says it all

Helmut Marko made it clear he was impressed with the way Arvid Lindblad handled his first experience of Formula 1 machinery on a Grand Prix weekend. The British Red Bull prospect, 17, made his free practice debut at Silverstone on Friday, filling in for Yuki Tsunoda.

And he looked right at home, going 14th fastest on the timesheets but only half-a-second slower than Max Verstappen in the other car. Tsunoda's qualifying times this season have often been much further adrift of the Dutchman.

Lindblad's performance impressed many onlookers including Red Bull's young driver chief Marko, who described the teenager as "a man for the future". He said: "For his first outing he was professional, and also his comments were very good. Long run and the time difference with Max was also reasonable."

The youngster squeezed in his FP1 run in between his commitments in Formula 2 and, given that constraint, he felt he did a "decent" job. He said: "I felt comfortable in the car and I think the speed was okay.

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"I think that definitely I could go a bit quicker with a few more laps. But considering it was my first time in [the] car, I've only done very limited running in an F1 [car] – for example this weekend I think it's 13, 14 seconds quicker than F2 so the step is enormous. So I think all that considered, with the limited prep, I'm quite happy with the job today."

The biggest worry for any rookie driver stepping into F1 machinery for the first time at a Grand Prix weekend is always that they might crash, as Kimi Antonelli did last year when given the chance to lap Monza in a Mercedes at the Italian Grand Prix, only to bury it in the barrier on his second flying lap.

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But Lindblad said he was not concerned that would happen because he didn't yet have the confidence in the machine under him that would have been required for him to push it up to or beyond its limit.

"He said: "I think the reality is these cars are so fast now, especially coming from what I'm used to, that my mental limit is lower than the car's limit. My mentality actually going into the session was to really try to push, knowing that I would always be under the limit of the car. So I was pushing out there."

Lindblad has been linked with one of the 2026 F1 seats available at Red Bull's junior team Racing Bulls, and he knows his best chance of landing one is to impress in the feeder series. He said: "After the session was done, I really wanted just to get another go, especially after driving the F2 [car] as it felt quite a lot slower and worse.

"But I think it's one of those moments that most people, basically everyone, doesn't get the opportunity to drive a Formula 1 car. So just to get that opportunity I'm extremely grateful for and I'm focused on working hard and doing a good job in F2 to be a full-time [F1] driver soon."