The trait more valuable than superlicence points that Lindblad now has

Photo: Toyota Gazoo Racing NZ

FIA superlicence points may have been the obvious target in FRegional Oceania for the driver at the front of Red Bull’s junior team queue, but he also achieved something more important to his backer: domination

Dr Helmut Marko does not hand his Red Bull juniors a chance to race in Formula 1 just because they have the FIA superlicence required to do so, but because they leave a strong impression on him. The best place to do that is Formula 2, right under the nose of the F1 paddock, but it’s the hardest championship to achieve it in.

Gabriel Bortoleto thrust himself into F1 seat contention by winning the 2024 F2 title, but the points table wasn’t reflective of which drivers impressed the most. Formula Scout’s analysis of the season’s statistical quirks highlighted how the drivers who came sixth and 12th in the standings shone strongly enough to merit F1 graduations, and on reflection it’s a surprise that nobody said these drivers didn’t deserve their chance for 2025.

That’s because of historical precedent, rather than any reflection of their abilities, as previous instances of drivers stepping up to F1 after a disappointing year in junior single-seaters has led to far more scepticism of teams’ line-up choices.

Red Bull likes winners, particularly in the mould of its four-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen. That direct comparison has worked against the brand over the past decade as it has wasted top talents, but when a driver does something to look like they’re on an ‘unstoppable’ rise then Red Bull moves to basically enable that to happen.

Prior to 2025, Lindblad was not a winning machine. But because of how deeply he has impressed so many of the people he has worked with, Red Bull has been proactive in finding the quickest but most effective way to move him up the ladder. It has done the same with others, but it’s not worked out when they’ve arrived underprepared at a level they can’t win at immediately.

Photo: Bruce Jenkins

That could prove to be the case as Lindblad steps up to F2 later this year, which would hurt the ‘unstoppable’ narrative that is now attached to the 17-year-old thanks to his superlicence eligibility for 2026. But Red Bull protected its investment against that PR risk by sending him over to New Zealand last month, where there was a lot of domestic interest but limited international attention until he was crowned champion (at which point the superlicence points he earned made Formula Regional Oceania relevant to F1 media), and prove he could be a winning machine.

If it needed to justify promoting Lindblad to an F1 seat in 2026, it can point to him romping to a title in 2025.

Lindblad, driving for the crack M2 Competition team, rose to the task as he made the podium in every single non-reversed-grid race and won six out of the 10. While on his victory streak, there was an evolution in Lindblad’s reaction to his success. At first there was gratitude that he had won, but pace concerns that he held through the first two rounds despite six successive podiums (including the reversed-grid races).

When he finally felt that M2 was maximising its package, and put in some dominant displays that were sometimes stymied by safety car interruptions, Lindblad was more happy with the results because he felt he had driven at the pace the team knew was possible to achieve rather than underdelivering en route to victory.

That was also noticable with tyre saving, and more than once Lindblad literally baked in that advantage via qualifying. His ability to put in a lap good enough for pole (a remarkable feat given the tiny gaps between drivers often seen) meant he was able end his sessions early and by setting fewer laps than his opposition he could start races with a tyre life advantage.

M2 returned to ‘struggling’ in the final round at Highlands Motorsport Park, but in the three segments of qualifying he was just 0.098, 0.145 and 0.194 seconds off the pace. That he ended up qualifying fifth in Q3 with a deficit of less than 0.2s to the poleman Broc Feeney – who was admittedly a single-seater debutant cameoing with MTEC Motorsport – showed how fine the margins were between excellence and being out of podium contention.

2025 championship standings

Lindblad had a pace advantage on leader Patrick Heuzenroeder (MTEC) in the first half of race one, but after coming under pressure from behind later was comfortably gapped and had to make do with wrapping up the title in second.

In race two he was wiped out on the opening lap, ruining his average finishing position but also providing M2 with a major repair job as his car ended up in the barriers. The championship’s allocated spare tub was available and his car was essentially rebuilt around that to ensure he could compete in the New Zealand Grand Prix.

He put on an attacking drive in the season-ending race, and clearly had a pace advantage on the drivers ahead, but found overtaking incredible difficult to pull off without exceeding track limits and finished 1.86s behind Giles Motorsport’s winner Will Brown in third.

Since there were tiny gaps all season, and sub-minute laps at Teretonga, the best way to assess Lindblad’s gap to the rest of the field on pace is in percentage terms. There his advantage is stark, as Lindblad was on average only 0.058% off the absolute pace and 0.316% ahead of team-mate Matias Zagazeta who was best of the rest. That same gap covered Zagazeta in second down to other team-mate Michael Shin who was on average the ninth fastest driver.

The last champion to exceed Lindblad’s tally of six victories was Mitch Evans in 2011, and two-time Daniel Gaunt is the only other driver to manage it in the 2000s. Evans and Lando Norris each had title-winning campaigns featuring eight pole positions, again the only examples of drivers trumping Lindblad’s tally, and his 12 podiums is a total last exceeded by a champion back in 2011. However due to his retirement in race two of the final round, Lindblad’s average race position is also the third worst by a champion. Regardless, he proved he could be a winning machine.

Absolute pace

No average when only one event attended