Headline: Verstappen to sit out Mexico FP1 as Red Bull hands Lindblad the keys
Max Verstappen won’t turn a lap in FP1 at the Mexico City Grand Prix. Red Bull is plugging 18-year-old Arvid Lindblad into the world champion’s RB for the opening session as it chips away at the mandatory rookie running.
It’s the second FP1 outing of Lindblad’s short F1 résumé after a tidy debut at Silverstone, where he kept it clean and clocked P14 on the timesheets. Inside Milton Keynes, the Brit is talked about in present-tense terms rather than far-off potential, and another hour in a front-running car is exactly the kind of audition that matters when seats and futures are being shuffled.
This isn’t Red Bull being cute with strategy; it’s box-ticking with a purpose. The FIA requires teams to field a rookie in both cars on two separate occasions across the season — four rookie FP1s in total. Red Bull is already halfway there after running Lindblad and Ayumu Iwasa at the British Grand Prix. Mexico bumps that count to three, with the door open for one more before the year’s out.
For Lindblad, the brief in Mexico City will be familiar: systems checks, aero sweeps, out-lap discipline, baseline runs, hand the car back intact. The job is to be quick enough to be relevant and sensible enough not to be remembered for the wrong reasons. If he impresses again, the noise around him will only get louder. Of the four drivers currently under the Red Bull umbrella in F1, only Verstappen’s future is nailed down for the long term, and Yuki Tsunoda’s seat continues to attract speculation. An 18-year-old putting mileage on the board with the senior team is not subtle messaging.
As for Verstappen, this is a low-risk sacrifice. He knows this place cold, having started here nine times and rattled off a hat-trick of wins between 2021 and 2023. Missing an hour on Friday shouldn’t harm his weekend rhythm, and the picture that really matters is the title fight. His win in Austin — his third in the last four — pulled him back within 40 points of championship leader Oscar Piastri. The Dutchman called it a “perfect weekend” stateside, and he wasn’t wrong: he built the gap early, managed the rubber when it counted and kept it clean on a track that rarely rewards aggression.
Mexico brings its own peculiarities and normally a queue for grip and confidence, but Verstappen’s baseline around the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is as strong as anyone’s. Expect him to slot straight into FP2 and sharpen the long-run car, with Lindblad’s feedback feeding into that setup picture.
The sub-plot is the one that stretches beyond Sunday. Red Bull is balancing a live championship campaign with giving its junior talent proper seat time — a juggling act the top teams traditionally hate but increasingly execute with minimal fuss. If Lindblad keeps making these laps look routine, he accelerates a conversation that was already happening behind closed doors: where does he fit next season?
All eyes, then, on car number 1’s timing screen for FP1 — just not with the usual name attached to it. Lindblad gets another crack at the big time. Verstappen gets an extra espresso before FP2. And Red Bull keeps its rookie ledger moving without blinking in a title fight that’s back on the boil.
