Racing Bulls rookie Lindblad nearly flips Guinness-record Fiat Panda in off-season YouTube stunt

Racing Bulls Formula 1 rookie Arvid Lindblad came close to rolling a Guinness World Record-holding miniature Fiat Panda during an off-season appearance on Italian car modification YouTube channel Carmagheddon, narrowly saving the vehicle before it tipped over.

The 19-year-old Briton, currently in his debut F1 campaign with Racing Bulls, took on two challenges in the video: piloting a motorised sofa around a makeshift circuit — complete with a figure-of-eight and a small hairpin — before attempting to make the heavily modified, record-breaking Fiat Panda perform the highest possible endo.

Lindblad admitted the sofa segment rattled him more than anything he encounters on a grand prix weekend. “I’ve got to be honest, when I first got on it, I was pretty scared,” he said. “I was more nervous before driving that than I am before F1. In practice and even qualifying, I am calmer than I was driving this. Once I was used to it, it was better. It’s not easy. It’s quite difficult to drive, and I never thought I would drive a sofa before in my life.”

The Fiat Panda challenge proved even more dramatic. Having been told a rollover was impossible, Lindblad pushed progressively harder with each attempt — until the car reached near-vertical on his final run. “You told me before it’s impossible to roll so I was super confident,” he said. “I did the first one and then I said, ‘OK, I’m going so slowly, I need to start pushing.’ I went a bit higher than expected on the last one. I was looking at the floor. It was almost vertical, it was crazy. I think I’ll stop now; otherwise I will flip it, but I enjoyed it a lot.”

The lighthearted diversion comes during a solid debut season for Lindblad, who sits 11th in the drivers’ standings with 31 points. Team-mate Liam Lawson, who has also been deputising for the injured Isack Hadjar at Red Bull, is ninth with 59 points.