News Summary
- Arvid Lindblad appeared to give away that Nikola Tsolov would be his Racing Bulls team-mate in 2027 when he posted about the two friends going from karting to sharing the track in Formula 1.
- Lindblad edited the caption within minutes, adding that he meant opening practice at the Mexico City Grand Prix, where both drivers ran for Racing Bulls on October 30.
- Racing Bulls has yet to announce its 2027 pairing. Tsolov is seven points off the Formula 2 lead, while Liam Lawson is still waiting to hear whether he will keep his seat.
Arvid Lindblad appeared to let slip on Thursday, November 5, that Nikola Tsolov would be his Racing Bulls team-mate in 2027, before quickly editing the Instagram post that set off the speculation. Lindblad had written about how the two friends went from sharing the track in karting to doing so in Formula 1. Within minutes, he added that he meant opening practice at the Mexico City Grand Prix, which had taken place six days earlier.
The friendship was the reason for the post. Lindblad was looking back on their karting days and celebrating how far they had both come. But the first caption made no reference to Mexico or FP1, leaving room for a much bigger reading: that the two would be sharing the track as full-time F1 team-mates. With Racing Bulls yet to announce either of its drivers for 2027, that would have amounted to revealing the whole pairing.
What Lindblad changed in the caption
The detail Lindblad added was specific. He was referring to October 30 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, when Tsolov joined him on track for the first hour of the Grand Prix weekend. Both drove for Racing Bulls in that session. The revised wording anchored the post to an occasion that had already happened, while the team’s decision for next season remained unannounced.
It was a milestone worth marking for two friends who had known each other since karting. Lindblad was approaching the end of his first F1 season, while Tsolov was making his debut in an official Formula 1 session. The Bulgarian had completed approximately 690km in the team’s 2025 car during a private test at Imola in August. Mexico was his first outing in the current Racing Bulls car at a Grand Prix weekend, and he finished 12th in FP1, 0.126 seconds behind Lindblad.
Why the prospect of a Lindblad–Tsolov pairing was already credible
Tsolov was already in the running for a race seat before he drove in Mexico. Team principal Alan Permane had identified Lindblad, Lawson and Tsolov as the three candidates for two places. Tsolov has also put together a title challenge in his first Formula 2 season with Campos. He led the standings before Azerbaijan and left Baku seven points behind Rafael Câmara.
If Racing Bulls goes with the pairing suggested by the original caption, it would mean promoting Tsolov alongside Lindblad and leaving Lawson without his current seat. The New Zealander arrived at Interlagos ninth in the drivers’ championship with 83 points, having recovered from a pit-lane start to finish seventh in Mexico City. Speaking at the São Paulo Grand Prix, Lawson said he still had little indication of when Racing Bulls would make its decision.
GRANDE PRÊMIO is following every session of the São Paulo Grand Prix live from Interlagos in Formula 1.
