How Red Bull’s ‘next champion’ feels about Marko amid Tsunoda exit tease

Helmut Marko may have a reputation as a tough taskmaster in Red Bull’s junior programme, but for Arvid Lindblad that’s fine as he and the Austrian have one goal in mind – F1.

A member of Red Bull’s junior programme since 2021, 17-year-old Lindblad made a huge step towards realising his Formula 1 dream when he won the recent Formula Regional Oceania Championship in New Zealand and secured enough points for an F1 super licence.

Arvid Lindblad could ‘maybe’ be in F1 in 2026

Although he will contest the Formula 2 series this season with Campos Racing, entering the championship after a year in F3, he’s already focused on the Formula 1 prize. So too is Marko.

Such is the 81-year-old’s belief in the British-Swedish racer, he said last year: “We are not looking for a new Max, we are looking for a new champion and I think the next one which looks really promising is Arvid Lindblad.”

Adding that “what makes him outstanding is his pure speed”, Marko revealed Red Bull will put the youngster through an extensive TPC [testing of previous car] programme during 2025.

“It’s a plan,” he said. “The number isn’t yet decided, but it will be several tests.

“I think in the past, if I compare with [Jack] Doohan, or with [Oscar] Piastri, or also with [Oliver] Bearman, they had a lot of tests in the two-year-old version Formula 1 car. And we want… For example, Liam Lawson didn’t have this opportunity, and also [Isack] Hadjar, to a certain amount, didn’t have this opportunity.

“And this we will change for Arvid that he, if he makes a very good season in Formula 2, that he can go with good experience into Formula 1 in 2026. Maybe.”

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Red Bull are expected to have a seat open in 2026 at the Racing Bulls junior outfit after team principal Christian Horner made it clear that either Yuki Tsunoda does enough this season to command a Red Bull race seat or he is out.

“We’re acutely aware that if we’re not able to provide an opportunity for Yuki [at Red Bull] in all honesty this year, does it [keeping him on] make sense?,” Horner said last year when Red Bull confirmed Liam Lawson had been promoted to Red Bull ahead of the Japanese driver.

“You can’t have a driver in the support team for five years. You can’t always be the bridesmaid. You’ve either got to let them go at that point or look at something different.”

But while stepping up into Formula 1 would put Lindblad firmly in Marko’s firing line, both privately and publicly, Lindblad says he actually appreciates the Austrian’s straightforward talking.

“He’s very transparent and honest, and it’s kind of just… I don’t know, I want to win, I want to perform well, so I don’t really see it as pressure or anything negative,” he told Inside Line. “I sort of take on board what he says and listen to him and take his advice and then just go out and try and drive fast and make him happy.

“That’s normally the response he gives you, and that’s the goal he sets. It’s to win. Which is normally easier said than done, but, no, in the end, if you want to be in Formula 1, you have to perform, you have to win. That’s the way the current F1 world is. And it’s exciting, and I see it as great that I have this sort of support and opportunity to be able to do that. So it makes me excited.”

But it wasn’t always that way with Lindblad admitting Marko was very intimidating during his early seasons with the Red Bull junior programme. However, he quickly got used to the Austrian’s on-point words – after all, Marko is the driving force behind Red Bull’s two four-time World Champions Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.

“In the beginning especially… I mean, it was more the fact that he’s a little bit scary,” he said with a laugh. “The guy you see on TV. He’s quite cutthroat in his approach and a little 13-year-old seeing him…

“It was also the way he talks. He’s very Austrian; he’s very to the point. So it was a bit to get used to in the beginning, but I saw it as obviously, he was the, like you say, the guy that was able to build Max and Max and Seb, and I just wanted to make sure I was the next guy. So I was full of confidence. And now I just talk to him like, it’s quite a relaxed conversation.

“Obviously, there’s no excuses when things go wrong. But he’s always been quite okay with me. I’ve heard some stories about other drivers. I’ve been quite lucky not to really experience any of those. But no, at the moment, we just have a very good relationship. Very open and quite performance-driven.

“In the end, I think a lot of people talk about his approach, and maybe it’s quite challenging or it adds a lot of pressure. But for me, I guess the way that I see it is he wants the best drivers in Formula 1. That’s Red Bull’s goal. They want to have the best guys.

“I want to be in Formula 1. So in the end our vision and our goals are aligned. So I just see it as an opportunity. They want to help me, and they believe in me. And we want the best for each other. So I don’t feel any pressure on that side.”

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