Liam Lawson’s contribution to Arvid Lindblad’s spectacular rookie F1 marketing campaign has been praised by Formulation E drivers’ champion and Lindblad’s supervisor Oliver Rowland, who believes the Racing Bulls team-mates are pushing one another to “new ranges” each weekend.
Lindblad has made a promising begin to his Formulation 1 profession, with the 19-year-old having established himself as a daily factors contender throughout the opening 11 rounds of the 2026 season.
Racing Bulls has equally emerged as one of many midfield success tales of the marketing campaign, constantly proving itself as the most effective of the remainder behind the established front-running groups, one thing Rowland is fast to level out.
The Faenza-based outfit entered the summer time break fifth within the constructors’ championship, having scored factors in 10 of the opening 11 grands prix.
Lawson has gathered 43 factors to sit down ninth within the drivers’ standings, whereas Lindblad is eleventh on 23.
For Rowland, who has labored intently with Lindblad all through the teen’s speedy rise by way of the junior ranks, the progress has been notably encouraging.
“He is began the season in a extremely great way; we’re actually happy,” the Nissan Formulation E driver completely tells RacingNews365.
“I feel, firstly, the crew have completed an incredible job to deliver so many priceless upgrades to the automotive, as a result of you’ll be able to deliver upgrades and suppose they are going to do one thing, however truly having what you suppose goes to occur may be very troublesome in Formulation 1.
“So I feel big credit score to them; they appear to be constantly better of the remainder outdoors the highest 4.”
Lawson’s position in that growth is notable given the New Zealander’s personal expertise of Formulation 1.
Now into his second full F1 season, after two partial campaigns, he has established himself because the extra skilled reference level throughout the Racing Bulls storage and has repeatedly delivered robust outcomes when alternatives have offered themselves.
Racing Bulls’ enchancment has additionally been underpinned by an efficient growth programme, with the upgrades launched through the opening half of the yr serving to to place the crew on the head of the midfield.
Lindblad, in the meantime, has needed to adapt to the calls for of F1 at exceptional velocity. His promotion adopted a speedy junior profession and his development by way of the Purple Bull programme, with Rowland offering steering away from the circuit in addition to managing his profession.
And the consistency achieved by each drivers has been a defining function of Racing Bulls’ season.
Lawson has scored factors at eight of the opening 11 rounds, together with sixth-place finishes at Monaco and the British Grand Prix, whereas Lindblad has twice completed seventh and added additional points-scoring leads to Australia, Spain, Austria and Belgium.
And the pair’s growth has additionally been intertwined, and so they recurrently occupy the identical a part of the circuit throughout a grand prix, which has, at factors, led to shut battles between them.
At Monaco, Lawson and Lindblad completed sixth and seventh respectively, whereas at Silverstone they crossed the road sixth and seventh once more. Lindblad then secured ninth at Spa-Francorchamps after qualifying seventh, finishing what Rowland considers his most rounded F1 weekend to this point.
It’s the relationship between the 2 drivers, fairly than merely their particular person outcomes, which has notably impressed the seven-time Formulation E winner, nonetheless.
“However I feel what’s been very nice for us is that Liam’s been actually strong and fought again, and he had a extremely good couple of races, after which Arvid fights again and betters himself,” he provides.
“That is precisely what you need in a crew dynamic, the place they’re pushing one another to new ranges each weekend.
“And, for us, it was discussing, ‘The place is he [Lawson] higher, the place can we be higher?’ And that is a extremely, very nice factor to have, particularly for Arvid.
“So sure, I feel Spa was his [Lindblad’s] most full Formulation 1 weekend to this point, and yeah, the longer term appears to be like brilliant for the entire crew.”
For Lindblad, that surroundings is at the moment one wherein he’s not anticipated merely to be taught from a longtime team-mate, however to problem him. And in line with Rowland, that competitors is already producing the specified impact.
The following step is to see whether or not Lindblad and Lawson can proceed pushing each other — and Racing Bulls — in direction of extra, increased “new ranges” when the season resumes.
