17-year-old Arvid Lindblad will be making his debut in Formula 2 this year after standout Formula 3 season.
Finlay McSporran
Published: 18:21, 7th January 2025
His performances last year caught the eye of many, with fans speculating over the prospect of him racing in F1 with RB as early as 2026!
Lindblad joined the Redbull family back in 2021 whilst he was still in karting, winning the WSK Euro series in the same year before making his single-seater debut in the last few rounds of Italian F4 in 2022.
His results from those races were rather unspectacular, scoring just 12 points in 8 races with a highest finish of 7th at Misano. These races were a crucial learning curve for Lindblad however, as he would be competing in Italian F4 again in 2023, this time for a full season with Prema.
Lindblad would finish the year third in the standings as the highest rookie, with six wins and ten podiums to his name. He would follow that up by winning the F4 Macau Grand Prix in dominant style, which was a sign of things to come next year, as he would be competing in Formula 3 with Prema.
Skipping Formula regional and jumping straight into F3 with Prema is a big risk, especially when your teammates are Dino Beganovic and Gabrielle Mini, two well established and talented drivers entering their second year in the championship.
But Lindblad got his season off to the best of starts by winning the opening race in Bahrain, at just 16-years-old! More podiums would follow in Australia and Spain, leaving him sixth in the standings heading into round six at his home race in Silverstone, and what a home race it would turn out to be…
Lindblad would qualify a disappointing p11, putting him on the front row for the reverse grid sprint race on Saturday which he calmly converted into his third win of the year.
But it was during a dramatic wet/dry race on Sunday where Lindblad really made his mark, as he stayed out on slick tyres when most of the field had pitted for wets, a gamble that paid off as the track began to dry towards the end, allowing Lindblad to climb back up the order and to the race lead, becoming the first driver in modern F3 history to win both the sprint and Feature race in the same weekend.
This achievement not only put his name in the spotlight, as many casual fans had never herd of him up until now, but also put him firmly in the title fight as he was now second in the standings and just 6 points off championship leader Gabrielle Mini.
Sadly for Lindblad, this would turn out to be his last podium of the year, as difficult qualifying sessions put him on the backfoot for the last three rounds meaning he couldn’t challenge for the title, eventually having to settle for fourth in the standings.
While he didn’t quite have the consistency to win the title that other F3 drivers in the past have, such as Gabrielle Bortoleto and Leonardo Fornaroli, Lindblad clearly showed that the pace was there, and showed why Redbull have so much faith in him.
He would at least end 2024 on a high with his first taste of F1 machinery during a Redbull show run in Houston where he got to drive Sebastian Vettel’s title winning RB8, going from karts to an F1 car in just three years!
After an impressive season in F3, Lindblad will now be making the step up to Formula 2 this season with Campos, the same team that Isack Hadjar raced for before he was promoted to F1, and with Redbull seemingly back to there old ways when it comes to hiring and firing drivers, it might not be that long until we see Arvid back in an F1 car.
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