Johnny Herbert seriously impressed with ‘outstanding’ Red Bull youngster in Bahrain

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Former Formula 1 star Johnny Herbert has praised teenage Red Bull junior driver Advid Lindblad after a fantastic debut in Bahrain.

Although the F1 season doesn’t get started until Saturday afternoon, the Formula 3 campaign got underway on Friday morning.

Taking to social media, Herbert singled out the 16-year-old after a fantastic drive in Sakhir.

Brundle praises Lindblad after F3 win in Bahrain

There are more eyes on the support series following the Formula 1 circuit this year than ever before.

With so many contracts running out at the end of 2024, plenty of young drivers might fancy their chances of making a quick step up.

The most obvious candidates are in Formula 2, although both Oliver Bearman and Andrea Kimi Antonelli struggled in the opening Sprint Race of the season.

Instead, it was Barbadian Zane Maloney – a Stake F1 Team junior – who took the first win of the year at that level.

But it was 16-year-old Arvid Lindblad who caught the eye of Johnny Herbert and others in the paddock in Bahrain.

The youngster driver on the grid started the F3 Sprint Race in fourth and expertly found his way past ART Grand Prix pair Nikola Tsolov and Laurens Van Hoepen.

He ended up more than five seconds clear in second place and showed that Red Bull have another fantastic driver to look to in the future.

Lindblad sends message to Red Bull team

Posting on social media after the race, Herbert said: “Outstanding drive from @arvid.lindblad winning his debut race in F3 at just 16! Very impressive.”

His praise was mimicked by Karun Chandhok who added: “Great race from @arvid.lindblad”

Red Bull let several youngsters go at the end of last year from their junior team, making Lindblad’s path to the top slightly more straightforward.

With Liam Lawson touted for a seat in 2025, Lindblad will at least want to step up to F2 to continue to put pressure on the four race seats in F1.

Lindblad’s impressive drive in Bahrain certainly caught the attention of Herbert and several others in the paddock.

It will be interesting to see what he can do from ninth in the feature race on Saturday where there are even more points to be scored.