Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane was impressed with rookie driver Arvid Lindblad during the Barcelona shakedown from 26-30 January, revealing that he saw many similarities between the 18-year-old and Isack Hadjar.
Hadjar drove for Racing Bulls during his rookie season in 2025 before securing a spot alongside four-time champion Max Verstappen at Red Bull. Lindblad will now line up beside Liam Lawson at Red Bull's sister team after finishing sixth in the Formula 2 standings.
“Very impressed with both. He’s very calm, he’s very cool – nothing seems to faze him," Permane said, via F1.com, of Lindblad after the private testing in Barcelona.
“He’s a little bit like I described Isack last year – he just wants to learn, he just wants to take in as much information as he can. He’s asking lots and lots of questions, he’s asking lots of advice – how should he do this, how should he do that?
“And then of course we’re helping him all the way. The most important thing – the pace – it looks like it’s there. The two guys are very similar, so far so good.”
Racing Bulls chief technical officer Tim Goss added: “He’s really calm, really professional, feedback is really straightforward. For someone so young, it’s really, really impressive. His session in the car has really just been about getting to grips with this breed of car.
“They’re very, very different, not just the general handling of the car but the way you’ve just got to manage the energy and the energy management, and he’s just been really, really cool, calm, professional.
“As we’re getting to grips with the balance of the car, his feedback has just been really simple, really clear, so [we’re] really, really impressed with him.”
Further testing will take place in Bahrain next week from 11-13 February and again from 18-20 February.
