Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad has paid a personal tribute to Helmut Marko, telling Formula 1's official Beyond The Grid podcast that the long-time Red Bull motorsport advisor is the single biggest reason he is on the 2026 grid.
Lindblad, the fourth-youngest driver in the sport's history, made a striking debut in Australia, running as high as third before finishing in the points. Now four races into his rookie campaign, the British-Swedish 18-year-old has used the high-profile podcast slot to push back against the public image of his most important mentor.
"There's a lot of stories about him being difficult and you know not the easiest to work with, but for me he was always amazing," Lindblad told host Tom Clarkson. "He's a big thanks to why I'm here today. He always had my back and he always believed in me, and even when things were going difficult last year, he was the one who believed in me most and has helped for me to have this opportunity this year. So I'll always be grateful to him for that."
The relationship pre-dates Lindblad's promotion to Racing Bulls. He spent multiple seasons climbing the Red Bull junior pyramid through Formula 4, Formula Regional and Formula 2, and admits that Marko's faith was decisive when his junior results were not always lining up with his potential.
"I always had a close relationship with Helmut, and that gave me maybe a bit more of a buffer when things were a bit more difficult in F2," Lindblad said. "My relationship with Helmut was very special."
That bond was reinforced after the rookie's Australian Grand Prix debut, where he scored on his first weekend in F1. Lindblad recalled the message Marko sent him afterwards.
"He was like, 'Arvid, everyone in Red Bull is now a Lindblad fan.' Those were his words."
Marko, for years the gatekeeper of the Red Bull young driver programme and the man who fast-tracked Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen into the senior team, has stepped back from his front-line role at the Faenza-based outfit ahead of 2026. His successor team is still leaning heavily on the pipeline he built, with Lindblad partnering Liam Lawson at Racing Bulls and Isack Hadjar serving as the team's reserve.
Lindblad's first four races have already produced one of the rookie talking points of the new regulation era. The teenager has run inside the top ten in three of them, beating Lawson on more than one occasion, and Racing Bulls technical staff have praised his ability to extract pace from the new energy-recovery package without burning the rear tyres in qualifying trim.
The candid Marko endorsement also lands at a politically delicate moment for the senior Red Bull team, which has been working to redefine its relationship with the junior programme after a turbulent 2025 driver market. Hearing one of its newest graduates publicly thank Marko, rather than the current management structure, is a reminder of how decisive the Austrian's word still is for the careers that pass through his orbit.
For the rookie himself, the message was simpler. After a debut weekend that included a fight with seasoned grand prix winners and a sixth-place finish on the official classification, Lindblad sounded like a driver determined to repay the man who refused to let him slip out of the system.
"He's a big thanks to why I'm here today," Lindblad said. The line will follow him for the rest of his career.
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