Some conversations leave a lasting impression and serve as a reminder that, even in today’s Formula 1, it is still possible to be yourself. No filters, no carefully rehearsed answers designed to avoid controversy and no pre-packaged responses ready to be copied and pasted. The fact that this interview was conducted with the youngest driver currently competing in Formula 1 makes it even more remarkable: Arvid Lindblad will turn 19 next Saturday.
There is already a mature young man behind the driver. Arvid Lindblad is only 18, but he has broad shoulders and a remarkable sense of perspective. Behind the helmet, gloves and race suit lies a story shaped by hardship, determination and an unusual clarity of thought. That maturity beyond his years emerges throughout the conversation.
Three years ago, during the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix, Helmut Marko was drinking a coffee inside Red Bull’s hospitality area. While discussing the team’s junior programme, Arvid Lindblad’s name came up. At that point, the young driver had not yet won a trophy in single-seater racing. “He will be in Formula 1 in three years,” Helmut Marko declared. On 2 December, Racing Bulls confirmed Arvid Lindblad’s arrival as part of its 2026 Formula 1 driver line-up.
“Why was he so certain?” Arvid Lindblad says now, reflecting on Helmut Marko’s prediction. “That is something I have asked myself as well. I think a lot of it came down to my mentality. I entered the Red Bull system at the end of 2020. I was 12 or 13 when I first met Helmut Marko. My father was at the meeting, but almost all the talking was between Helmut Marko and me. He later told me that this was one of the things that impressed him: he saw a very determined young boy in front of him, someone who was extremely focused on his goal.”
Arvid Lindblad’s Formula 1 goal never needed a plan B
Let us begin there. Many drivers remember Formula 1 simply being a dream when they were children. You always spoke about Formula 1 as a concrete objective. You were still a child when you told your mother: “I’m not going to university. I’m going to be a Formula 1 driver.” When and where did that certainty begin?
“It was simply what I wanted to do. From a very young age, my goal was to reach Formula 1. But I didn’t only want to get there. I remember that when I was six or seven, I didn’t dream merely of taking part. I wanted to be competitive and fight for victories. I can’t explain why I was so different from other children. I only know that this was how my mind worked.
“Of course, I also played other sports when I was young. I played football at school and went swimming, just like many other children. But deep down, I never thought any of those things could become my future. For me, only Formula 1 existed.”
When you began racing in the junior single-seater categories, was there ever a moment when you seriously considered a plan B or an alternative career?
“No, never, because in my mind plan A was going to work. Even when I was five or six, I couldn’t imagine a future in which I did not become a Formula 1 driver. For me, it simply wasn’t a possibility. Perhaps that is also why I was never afraid of expectations. A lot of people become frightened when faced with such an enormous goal. Honestly, I didn’t.”
The people who shaped Arvid Lindblad’s path to Formula 1
Looking back, can you identify a particular moment or person who made the biggest difference to your career?
“Oliver Rowland. Apart from my family, he is probably the person who has helped me more than anyone else.”
Oliver Rowland has long served as Arvid Lindblad’s driver coach. He enjoyed an extensive single-seater career of his own and now competes in Formula E.
“I met Oliver Rowland when I was seven. At first, we simply did a few karting test days together, but the relationship gradually developed. When I won the British karting championship, we began working much more closely. He taught me an enormous amount, both as a driver and as a person.
“I genuinely believe that my career would have been different without Oliver Rowland. Of course, I also have to mention Helmut Marko. He gave me a huge opportunity. He believed in me even when other people didn’t and, if I am here today, it is primarily thanks to him. I will always be grateful. Oliver Rowland and Helmut Marko are the two people who have had the greatest influence on my journey.”
How are you experiencing this stage of your career? Is it unfolding as you imagined?
“Everything is completely different compared with previous years. My life has changed enormously, but I am dealing with it very well. Being in Formula 1 is what I dreamed about throughout my childhood, so I am mainly trying to enjoy every moment and appreciate what is happening to me.
“I am someone who tends to adapt easily to different situations. I deal naturally with whatever comes my way. Every so often, however, I also try to stop for a moment and remember that I spent so many years wanting to be in this paddock and drive these cars. That is why I am genuinely trying to appreciate every moment.”
You completed the entire Red Bull Junior Team pathway. Someone at Red Bull said a couple of years ago that you were the perfect driver for that programme. How did your journey unfold?
“It all began in karting. Helmut Marko had several contacts within the karting world and regularly asked them about the most promising young drivers. At some point, my name began to come up more and more frequently.
“I remember perfectly the day when everything began to take shape. I was in Portimão with my father, preparing for the World Championship. We were having breakfast when he received a call from Graz in Austria. He answered it and, after ending the call, told me that Helmut Marko wanted to meet us to discuss a contract.
“I remember that moment very clearly. We met on the Sunday morning of the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix, before Helmut Marko went to the circuit. I don’t remember whether we actually signed the contract that day, but that was when he told us our partnership would begin. Everything started from there.”
Why Red Bull pressure never weighed on Arvid Lindblad
Many people describe the Red Bull programme as extremely demanding: if you do not deliver results, you are immediately pushed aside.
“It is true that people perceive it that way, but I never experienced it like that. I always saw it only as an enormous opportunity. I thought: ‘They believe in me and they are helping me reach Formula 1.’ I never felt the pressure everyone talks about.
“In my mind, it was always very simple. If I wasn’t fast enough, I would be angry with myself. It would not have been a problem created by Red Bull. It would have meant that I hadn’t been good enough, and that is why I never felt pressured.”
That uncompromising attitude would remain important while Arvid Lindblad navigated the inevitable challenges of a rookie Formula 1 campaign.
“The first time I saw the Red Bull helmet, my only thought was: ‘Wow, that looks amazing.’ That was it. The same applies now in Formula 1. Everyone told me: ‘The pressure in Formula 1 is enormous.’ I am sure there will come a time when I feel it as well, but so far, honestly, I never have.
“Being here is what I have wanted since I was five years old. I worked my entire life to reach this position. I am grateful to all the people who helped me, but ultimately this is my dream and I am living it for myself. Why should I feel under pressure?”
Silverstone, Bahrain and the strongest emotions of his career
What is the most powerful emotion you have experienced in motorsport?
“I would choose two. The first was definitely Silverstone in 2024, in Formula 3, when I won both races. In reality, it was a strange weekend because everything began badly.
“As a team, we made a mistake in qualifying. We went onto the track too early. The conditions were changing constantly because the surface was drying, and I was one of the first drivers to begin a flying lap. The lap itself was good, but the timing wasn’t. I ended up 11th and remember how angry I was.
“Until then, I had always been fighting near the front. Although starting 11th meant taking pole position for the reverse-grid Sprint Race, honestly, I didn’t care. The Sunday Feature Race was what mattered most to me.
“I won on Saturday, but I had started from the front and it wasn’t the most difficult race of my career. Before Sunday’s race, I was talking to Oliver Rowland and we agreed that finishing fifth or sixth would already be an extraordinary result.
“Then the rain arrived, the race became completely crazy and somehow I managed to win. It was the first time in my life that I had been so overwhelmed by emotion that I almost lost control. I was screaming over the radio because I couldn’t believe what had happened. I was simply incredibly happy.
“The feeling was even better than I had imagined in my dreams. Reality usually never manages to surpass what you imagine, but on that occasion it went far beyond it. It was something I would not even have known how to imagine.”
Silverstone would retain a special place in Arvid Lindblad’s career, including when he later returned for an emotional first home Formula 1 Grand Prix.
And the second emotion?
“I would say the Bahrain Sprint Race, again in Formula 3. That victory lifted an enormous weight from my shoulders. Moving directly from Formula 4 to Formula 3 was considered almost impossible. Nobody had completed only one season in Formula 4 and then immediately been competitive in Formula 3. It was an enormous step, perhaps the biggest of my entire career.”
Bigger than the transition from Formula 2 to Formula 1?
“Yes, probably. I knew perfectly well that the season could completely change my career. If I performed well, everyone would say that I genuinely was a major talent. If I didn’t, I probably would have had to scale back my ambitions.
“Considering how my Formula 4 season had ended as well — I lost the championship after dominating the first half of the year — I had quite a lot of doubts about myself. Winning at the first opportunity made all that pressure disappear.”
The Melbourne moment when Formula 1 finally felt real
You didn’t include Formula 1 among your strongest emotions.
“Those moments will come, but there is one experience I will never forget. It was Melbourne last March. Until then, I had not truly processed the fact that I had become a Formula 1 driver. I knew it, obviously, but I had not yet internalised it.
“The first time it really struck me was on the starting grid. After the national anthem, I was walking back towards the car. I had qualified ninth and was about to put on my helmet when Oliver Rowland hugged me and said something very simple: ‘All those years of hard work were for this moment.’
“At that instant, something happened to me that I had never experienced before. For one or two seconds, all the images from my life passed before my eyes. When I was seven. When I was eight. When I dreamed about Formula 1. All the difficult moments. All the years when I wondered whether I would make it.
“I started crying. Then I stopped immediately because I had a race to drive, but it was a completely different emotion from anything else. It was the moment when I truly understood: ‘I have made it to Formula 1.’”
It is not only about results or trophies. There is also a human and emotional journey.
“Exactly. Oliver Rowland’s words — ‘All those years of hard work were for this’ — summed up everything. It represented 13 years of my life. There were so many difficult moments. Many times, I thought about giving up. Many times, I doubted myself.
“It is difficult even to explain what I experienced, but I don’t think I will ever feel an emotion that intense again.”
Does the perfect lap exist in Formula 1?
Do you believe the perfect lap exists?
“That is an interesting question. When I was a child, I was convinced that the perfect lap did not exist. It was like an unattainable ideal: you could only try to get as close to it as possible.
“Today, however, I see it slightly differently. I think there are very particular situations — and they are extremely rare — in which you manage to go beyond what you would normally be capable of doing.
“I imagine it could happen when you are fighting for a world championship or something genuinely important. In those moments, I believe a driver can enter a completely different mental state, almost as though there were someone sitting on your shoulder and helping you.
“You are no longer thinking about what you are doing. You drive automatically, everything happens naturally and suddenly you produce a lap that seems almost unreal. However, I don’t think it is something you can deliberately control. If you try to construct it, it won’t happen. It simply has to occur.
“It probably happens only once or twice in an entire career. Paradoxically, it occurs precisely when you are going through a difficult period, when you are fighting, under pressure and need to find something extra. That is when, sometimes, you manage to reach a special place.”
Why Arvid Lindblad does not want to live in Monaco
You have said on several occasions that you have no intention of moving to Monaco. Why?
“There are several reasons. The first is very simple. The season is so intense that, when I want to switch off, I genuinely want to distance myself completely from the world of racing.
“Monaco, by contrast, is Formula 1 even when you are not at the circuit. There are drivers and people who work in the sport, and everyone is constantly talking about racing. I don’t want to live in a place like that.
“I prefer being close to the sea, somewhere quiet where nobody recognises me. Somewhere I can go to the cinema, take a walk, go out with friends or simply live like a normal young man. That is extremely important to me.
“Since I was a child, my life has been completely different from the lives of people my age. When I am at the circuit, I want to be a Formula 1 driver. When I return home, however, I am simply an 18-year-old. I want to live a normal life, and that is exactly what I can do in the place where I live now.”
What is the second reason?
“It concerns my family. I come from a family that always worked incredibly hard to achieve everything it has. My father raced a little, but not because he had significant financial resources. Quite the opposite.
“My grandparents did not have money. There were periods when my father struggled even to have three meals a day. He was already working when he was 11 or 12.
“My mother’s side of the family also has a very particular story. My grandparents came from Pakistan. At one point, they lost everything — literally everything. From one day to the next, they had nothing left apart from the clothes they were wearing and whatever they could carry with them.
“They arrived in the United Kingdom and had to rebuild their lives from nothing. They worked hard as doctors to establish a new life. I grew up surrounded by people who had to earn everything through hard work.
“I think that is also why I was so determined even as a child. It was how I was raised. The idea of settling for a normal life never existed for me. I always wanted to do something special.”
Does that also connect to your decision not to live in Monaco?
“Exactly. I know many people who live there tell me that, ultimately, it is a fairly normal life. In my mind, however, I still struggle to accept the idea of living somewhere that represents a symbol of wealth.
“When I think about my father struggling to eat three times a day when he was young, and about my grandparents losing everything, it almost feels wrong. It is a personal feeling. I am not saying that Monaco is a bad place. I simply don’t feel comfortable with the idea today.
“Of course, I am also a normal young man. Every so often, I like buying myself something nice. Perhaps I am slightly contradictory from that point of view, but that is how I feel today.”
Why the Formula 1 rookie still does not have a driving licence
Is it true that you still haven’t obtained your driving licence?
“Yes, it is true,” Arvid Lindblad says with a laugh. “I have simply been so busy that I never found the time. Part of me also enjoyed the idea of reaching Formula 1 without having a driving licence. I thought it would make an amusing story.
“Now, however, it is becoming a problem. My mother still drives me around or I have to take an Uber. Until recently, I genuinely didn’t need a licence. My life was organised in such a way that I could manage without one.
“Now I have found a fantastic sports centre with a gym, swimming pool and athletics track, but it is about 20 minutes from my home. I can’t continue asking my father to drive me everywhere.
“I am therefore finally making a serious effort to get my licence. The difference is that, for the first time, I genuinely feel that I need it, so I will get it.”
Money, personal identity and life beyond Formula 1
You are 18 and already competing in Formula 1. What is your relationship with money? Is it a symbol of success or independence, or is it something you do not think about?
“Honestly, I don’t think about it very much. My reasoning is simple. I have sporting objectives. If I manage to achieve them, the money will arrive as a consequence. That is why it is not something that occupies my thoughts.
“I am more interested in building my personal brand. I don’t mean my image as much as the way I want to develop my career away from the track. I like fashion and I like music. I am interested in understanding which companies I should work with, which partnerships I should build and how I can grow in that area as well.
“Those are the subjects I think about. It is not because I want to earn more money. It is because I want to do things properly and build something that will last.”
Is there anything else you dream of doing, something far removed from Formula 1?
“There is something I find fascinating when I look at Max Verstappen. I like the fact that Max Verstappen does not only love Formula 1: he loves racing. That is an important difference.
“That is why he created a GT team, wants to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and continues to look beyond Formula 1. When I think about my own future, I realise that I am very similar.
“Naturally, I want to have a long career in Formula 1. I would like to remain here for 10 or 15 years. But once that chapter is over, I would like to try completely different experiences.
“I would like to compete in IndyCar for a few seasons. Then I would like to try Australian V8 Supercars and consider other experiences that fascinate me. The world of motorsport is enormous.”
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