“It was pretty nuts to be honest” - Arvid Lindblad Impresses on F1 Debut

The latest driver from the Red Bull Junior Team to be promoted to the big leagues, he made his F1 debut competing alongside Liam Lawson for the Racing Bulls. The 18-year-old is the youngest of the 22 drivers, and with only four total years of experience in single seaters, he has risen through the racing ranks at incredible speed.

Lindblad showed exactly why he deserved the promotion during the whole weekend. He drove excellently, getting as high as P5 during FP1 and out-performing his much more experienced teammate in all three practice sessions.

Yet one of Lindblad’s most impressive results came during Qualifying, where he made it to the top ten shootout. He nearly missed Q3 after almost colliding with his own teammate in the pitlane as Lawson slowed down to avoid Gabriel Bortoleto, whose car had come to a stop. Thankfully, Lindblad’s quick reflexes saved both of the Racing Bulls from an incident, and once Q3 got started the set the ninth’s quickest lap. Not a bad result at all for his first go ever in an F1 Qualifying. 

“I kind of knew coming into the session that we were fast,” he said to F1 media afterwards, “and I just needed to focus on myself and do my job and we could be competitive,” 

Indeed, he was able to put that competitiveness on display at lights out on Sunday as he climbed from ninth to fourth on the race start. He drove a solid race throughout the rest of the Grand Prix, giving Oliver Bearman a headache with excellent defence in the latter half. Ultimately, Lindblad finished eighth and collected his first four points in F1. The P8 finish at 18 years and exactly seven months makes him the third youngest point scorer in the history of the sport, behind only Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli. 

“It was pretty nuts, to be honest,” Lindblad said about his F1 debut to Sky Sports media.

“I'm very happy to score points… After qualifying yesterday, I thought that was the goal, and I think, from a procedural point of view, I think I did things right. I got stuck in on lap one, I did a good start, I tried to manage all the VSCs, the pit stops, everything well.

“I think there's a few things in the middle of the race on management that I think I could have done better. But generally I think it's really positive.”

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Cover image via Red Bull Content Pool