Laurent Mekies reacts to Red Bull reserve Arvid Lindblad beating Yuki Tsunoda at Mexican Grand Prix

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Arvid Lindblad had an opportunity to audition for a 2026 Formula 1 seat at the Mexican Grand Prix on Friday. He replaced Max Verstappen during the opening practice session.

Red Bull fulfilled the regulatory requirement to field a rookie in both cars, with eight other teams doing the same in FP1. F2 driver Lindblad is hopeful of a Racing Bulls seat next year.

Ironically, Yuki Tsunoda, his Red Bull teammate for one day only, is a direct competitor for that spot. The consensus in the paddock is that Isack Hadjar will step up to the top team for next year.

That leaves Tsunoda, Lindblad and Liam Lawson scrapping for two seats at Alan Permane’s team. It felt significant, then, that the 18-year-old outpaced the Japanese incumbent in practice.

Laurent Mekies says there was a slight difference in Arvid Lindblad and Yuki Tsunoda fuel loads

Lindblad was sixth-fastest overall in the session, six-tenths off pacesetter Charles Leclerc and only two behind championship leader Oscar Piastri. Tsunoda was eighth, 0.1s behind the youngster.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the session, Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies explained that Lindblad stayed on ‘rather low-ish fuel’, which helped him set an eye-catching lap time. Tsunoda completed the quota of higher-fuel running.

Thus, the leaderboard may be a little misleading, but Mekies still thinks that the Briton showed impressive pace. For reference, Lindblad was half a second behind Verstappen in the corresponding session at the British GP in July.

• READ MORE: F1 fans are all saying the same thing as Arvid Lindblad outpaces Yuki Tsunoda at Mexican Grand Prix

“Slightly different run plans,” Mekies said. “We took the chance to leave Arvid on the rather low-ish fuel, just not to give him the complications.

“He did a very good job. It’s so difficult to jump in in this context. As you can see, the pace is there, so not much to argue against that!”

Does Yuki Tsunoda already know his F1 fate?

Karun Chandhok believes Tsunoda should get the Racing Bulls drive alongside former teammate Lawson. This would give the team important continuity as they prepare to race with Red Bull power units for the first time ever.

As for Lindblad, Chandhok has advocated a more cautious approach that would see him remain in F2 for a second year. He currently ranks second in the feeder series.

However, Ralf Schumacher thinks it’s already ‘game over’ for Tsunoda. He suspects Red Bull are only telling him that a final decision hasn’t been made to keep him motivated.

Alpine are the only other team with a vacancy and they’ve indicated that they will choose between Franco Colapinto and Paul Aron. That could mean Tsunoda goes from a top-four team to the sidelines, just as Sergio Perez did at the end of last year.