Arvid Lindblad didn’t just tick a box in Mexico City — he jumped into Max Verstappen’s RB21, the only Red Bull running the latest upgrade package, and brought it back without a scratch. For an 18-year-old on his first FP1 with the big team, that’s not a small detail. It was the risk behind the scenes that made it a proper storyline inside the Red Bull garage.
Laurent Mekies, who runs Red Bull’s sister team Visa Cash App RB and knows a thing or two about bedding in young drivers, lifted the lid on it afterwards. Speaking on Red Bull’s Talking Bull podcast, Mekies said the reigning champions handed Lindblad the one car carrying new floor work and revised brake ducts and sidepods. Translation: if the teenager put a wheel wrong, Verstappen’s car would likely have to drop back to an old spec for the rest of the weekend.
“I think we were probably close to 15 people going to him before FP1 saying, ‘Please, just don’t take risk,’” Mekies said, half-laughing and half-serious. “We had the new package for that race that was only on that car. So we said, ‘Look, you know, we really need it.’”
Mexico’s opening practice is never a gentle out-lap. The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez surface starts dusty, grip comes and goes, and the altitude punishes power units and brakes while the drivers search for feel. Lindblad, making his mandatory rookie outing as nine of the 10 teams fulfilled their FP1 obligation, rolled through a full programme: 26 laps, solid execution, and a neat, clean sheet. He even shaded Yuki Tsunoda’s time by a tenth, which says as much about his composure as it does the constantly evolving track.
“So he did what he did without touching the kerb, without putting a wheel on the grass,” Mekies added. “Very, very impressive. He’s 18 — it’s easy to forget.”
The other half of the story sat on the pit wall. Verstappen, temporarily out of uniform, devoured the data. According to Mekies, the triple World Champion tracked everything he could in real time: what set-up Lindblad was running, what Tsunoda had underneath him, how the RB21 reacted to different inputs in each section. It’s the sort of relentless curiosity that separates the frontrunners, even on a “rookies on a dusty track” Friday.
“He was seeing corner by corner, live in this data, how the car was reacting,” Mekies said. “It was as close as it could get for him to be driving in the car… That tells you the level of the competition.”
The payoff for Red Bull? Confidence banked. They validated a big upgrade in the most controlled way possible, and their junior didn’t blink. Verstappen stepped back in for FP2, tuned up, and turned the weekend into another Sunday podium — business as usual at the sharp end of a 2025 season that remains tightly coiled ahead of the regulation reset next year.
For Lindblad, it’s a line on the CV that reads better the closer you look. FP1s can be thankless errands for rookies: unhelpful track states, limited tyres, heavy fuel, constant traffic. Doing it in the only updated car in the building, with half the garage muttering “please don’t risk it” and the sport’s most ruthless reference watching your every trace, is something else entirely. He handled it like he’s been here before.
Red Bull’s conveyor belt doesn’t hand out trust cheaply. On a tricky Friday at 2,200 metres, they gave an 18-year-old the keys to their best toy — and he brought it home, fast and intact. That’s how you make an impression in one hour flat.
