Red Bull talent Lindblad makes a confession: 'Helmut Marko is scary'
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Arvid Lindblad, one of Red Bull Racing’s brightest young talents, has spent plenty of time with Helmut Marko as part of the Red Bull Junior Team. The 17-year-old admits he initially found the Austrian F1 team’s senior advisor a bit intimidating but now feels at ease under Marko’s guidance.
Lindblad found Marko 'a bit scary'
When he was just getting to know Marko, Lindblad found the experienced Austrian intimidating. "In the beginning especially. I mean, it was more the fact that he's a little bit scary," laughs the driver, who is racing this year in Formula 2 for the Campos Racing team. "The guy you see on TV. He's quite cutthroat in his approach and a little 13-year-old seeing him..." he explained to the Inside Line Podcast.
Lindblad knew Marko would largely determine his future. In doing so, he points to Red Bull champions Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel as examples. "It was also the way he talks. He's very Austrian; he's very to the point. So it was a bit to get used to in the beginning, but I saw it as obviously, he was the, like you say, the guy that was able to build Max and Max and Seb, and I just wanted to make sure I was the next guy. So I was full of confidence. And now I just talk to him like, it's quite a relaxed conversation.
Lindblad: 'We have a very good relationship'
"Obviously, there's no excuses when things go wrong. But he's, he's always been quite okay with me. I've heard some stories about other drivers. I've been quite lucky not to really experience any of those. But no, at the moment, we just have a very good relationship- Very open and quite performance-driven.
"In the end, I think a lot of people talk about his approach, and maybe it's quite challenging or it adds a lot of pressure. But for me, I guess the way that I see it is he wants the best drivers in Formula One. That's Red Bull's goal. They want to have the best guys. I want to be in Formula One. So in the end our vision and our goals are aligned. So I just see it as an opportunity. They want to help me, and they believe in me. And we want the best for each other. So I don't feel any pressure on that side." Lindblad concludes.
This article was written in collaboration with Toby Nixon
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