Arvid Lindblad has admitted that his encouraging debut weekend in Australia still hasn\u2019t \u201cfully sunk in yet\u201d after he hit the ground running with a Q3 appearance and points for Racing Bulls.<\/p>\n
The 18-year-old, who is this season\u2019s only rookie driver, was promoted from Formula 2 at the end of last year and quickly demonstrated why he earned his seat \u2013 he outperformed team mate Liam Lawson<\/a> in nearly every session at Albert Park, and secured the team\u2019s first points of 2026.<\/p>\n With Lawson losing positions after starting in eighth, just ahead of Lindblad<\/a>, the pressure of scoring was left on the teenager\u2019s shoulders, which he took in his stride as he stormed through the field to reach a peak of third place before taking P8 at the chequered flag.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t really know if it\u2019s all sunk in yet,\u201d he said ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix. \u201cIt was a very special weekend, I enjoyed a lot. In the end it\u2019s been something I\u2019ve been working towards my whole life, getting to Formula 1, so to have my debut was very special.<\/p>\n \u201cTo have my dad there as well was really cool. I think the reality of being a Formula 1 driver and making my debut, I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s fully sunk in yet \u2013 I think that\u2019s more the part I\u2019d mention.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I\u2019m very happy with the race \u2013 I think scoring points on my debut was very special and I think the manner in which I did it, being P3 at one point on Lap 1, was pretty cool and definitely more than I could have ever expected.\u201d<\/p>\n Lindblad also got stuck into battles with Max Verstappen<\/a> and Lewis Hamilton<\/a> during the early stages of the race, which he previously said<\/a> demonstrated that he\u2019s \u201cnot going to hang about\u201d when it comes to defending track position.<\/p>\n Taking P8 guaranteed him four points and a spot in the history books as he became the youngest British racer to score in a Grand Prix, and one of an exclusive list of drivers to score on their debut.<\/p>\n Prompted on what the achievement means to him, he replied: \u201cIt\u2019s cool. I\u2019m proud of it and I\u2019m also grateful to everyone from the team, everyone from RBPT for helping to give me a strong package, but a lot of thanks to my parents and Red Bull itself and Dr [Helmut] Marko for the opportunity he\u2019s given me, because he\u2019s been a big part of why I\u2019m standing here today, so I\u2019m grateful to them.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd on the British point as well, the youngest-ever British driver to score points, is really cool for me. I\u2019m very proud to be from the UK \u2013 it\u2019s a big part of why I\u2019m here. The grassroots level in the UK is extremely high.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no mystery why there are five British drivers on the grid \u2013 the tracks, the level, the weather helps a lot, to teach drivers, to develop, and improve at such a fast rate, and it\u2019s helped me a lot to stand here today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arvid Lindblad has admitted that his encouraging debut weekend in Australia still hasn\u2019t \u201cfully sunk in yet\u201d after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-535171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}