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Arvid Lindblad is British, Indian, Swedish, and will debut in Formula 2 for a Spanish team next year. The 17-year-old has had a rather meteoric rise in motorsports as he eyes the promised land – Formula One. News18 caught up with the young driver on…Read More
Arvid Lindblad made history at Silverstone in July 2024 by becoming the first driver to win both the Sprint and Feature Race at the same Formula 3 weekend.
Arvid Lindblad may have never read the Bhagavad Gita. But the 17-year-old is following its most popular tenet in the intensely competitive world of motorsport – put in the work and the rest shall follow. This simple yet deep Indian philosophy seems like a natural adoption for Arvid, who is part Indian himself on his mother’s side. His full name is Arvid Anand Olof Lindblad.
His nani (maternal grandmother) is Sikh, his nana (maternal grandfather) is Hindu, his dad is Swedish, he races under the Union Jack, is part of the Red Bull Junior Team and will debut in Formula 2 next year with Campos Racing, a Spanish team. All these identities are fuelling the talented young driver’s rather meteoric rise through the pyramid of motorsports as he eyes the promised land – Formula One.
On his first visit to India, News18 caught up with Arvid Lindblad and his Indian family who hope to see him race in F1 one day in an Indian Grand Prix.
The Indian Connect
As a mixed-raced British driver, Arvid is in the company of legends like Lewis Hamilton. While he is mindful of the immense pressure that brings, the 17-year-old knows where his focus should be – racing.
“Coming from a mixed background is beneficial in the sense that I have quite a big connection to quite a few countries – India, Britain and Sweden. And obviously India is a very big country, so that’s very beneficial. But to be honest, from a racing point of view, I don’t think it really changes that much because, at the end of the day, it’s about driving fast. But obviously, having those links and connections is something I’m very proud of,” he says.
His mother Anita Ahuja adds that while Arvid may not wear his Indian identity on his sleeve, it is reflected in the confidence and clarity with which he is navigating his career at such a young age.
“He’s incredibly close to his grandparents, my parents. My mom is Sikh, my dad is Hindu. My husband Stefan and I were married in a Hindu ceremony and a Christian ceremony, and both my sons were baptised in the Church, Gurudwara and Temple. Arvid himself isn’t probably aware of it, but he has deep Indian values – work hard, be humble and be grateful for all we have,” she says.
“Arvid does poojas at Diwali. He’s quite deeply spiritual. I think that’s what keeps his mind straight… that he has such a strength of background behind him and the belief that if we work hard, things will work out.”
Karting, Where It All Began…
Arvid’s motorsport journey has been steered to a large extent by his Swedish-origin father Stefan Lindblad who dabbled in motocross in his youth but couldn’t build it into a career because of financial factors. Arvid’s earliest brush with motorsports, in fact, is being gifted a motocross at the age of three.
“Motorsports doesn’t come from my side of the family. It was really driven by my husband. That’s where the passion comes from… I think in the back of his head, he had this idea, you know, that if he had any children who showed a little bit of an interest (in motorsports), it was going to be fantastic for him,” says Arvid’s mom Anita.
And not only did Arvid show interest, but took to it like fish to water. He entered karting at the age of 5 and progressed to competitive karting at the age of 8 in 2015. In 2020, he won the WSK Super Master Series in the OKJ class and then went on to win the WSK Euro Series and WSK Final Cup in the OK class.
His nani Amarjeet Ahuja looks back on his karting days fondly. “I have been watching Arvid from the age of 4-5 years when he first started karting. They used to come to Bolton. I used to make breakfast for him, pack it up and send him to the karting center. We used to go there as well and enjoy it. But at the same time, we were very nervous and wanted to make sure everything went fine. It was quite an exciting and interesting experience,” she says.
It Had To Be Britain
Arvid’s mother Anita is thankful that his motor racing career began in Britain. “For Arvid to have turned out the way that he has, the story had to have started in Britain because of the grassroots competitive nature and the people who we met along our journey… I think we’ve had fantastic people around us… It’s destiny.”
And destiny played out perfectly at home in Silverstone this July when Arvid won the F3 Sprint as well as the feature race, a first since Jack Doohan’s Belgium outing in 2021. It was a victory his whole family, including his grandparents, were there to watch. It was, as his mother says, “a magical weekend”.
Team Arvid
When he was seven, Arvid Lindblad came to the notice of Formula E star Oliver Rowland, who has also raced for Mahindra, and has since been mentored by him. Sam Village, his trainer, is another integral part of Team Arvid. But it is the teenager himself who took charge of his career early on when even his parents were nervous and unsure about the future plans.
“I was very conflicted about it. I was never discouraging but every obstacle I set for him… He had some very high hurdles. And every year, Arvid surpassed them. He was expected to do all his academic work and he did all of it exceptionally,” says his mother.
“He would show up at 5am outside our room, dressed in full race gear, asking if we are ready to take him to the track. For a young child to determine that this is what they want to do… Most children aged 5-6 want to be with friends and have fun. But he wanted to spend extra time at the track even if it was raining. Arvid has sacrificed so much… In karting, he was outperforming boys who were 4-5 years older than him. So, the things that would normally be the reason why you stop, just didn’t exist. Somehow, we found ourselves at this point…,” she adds.
And one fine day in 2021, “this point” was a meeting with Helmut Marko, the central figure in Red Bull Racing who has the final say in driver movements along with F1 Team Principal Christian Horner. The meeting was in Portimao, Portugal and was led completely by Arvid, says his mother.
“It was Arvid who was leading the meeting. His dad was nervous. It would be daunting for me to even meet the man (Marko) now, but, ridiculous as it sounds, here was this 12-year-old leading that meeting!”
Enter Red Bull
With that meeting in 2021, Arvid joined the Red Bull Junior Team, a driver development programme whose graduates include World Champions Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel as well as drivers like Carlos Sainz Jr, Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly. The most recent Red Bull Junior Team driver to progress to Formula 1 is Liam Lawson who will partner up with Max Verstappen at Red Bull next year.
So what does Red Bull mean for Arvid now? “Red Bull has been very important to me. They have played a big role in my career. I started with them when I just turned 13, so I’ve now been on the program for four years and I’ve really risen through the ranks from sort of junior karting level all the way through now to F2. So yeah, I’m very grateful to them. They’ve given me obviously a lot of support and really nurtured my development. I wouldn’t be where I am today without them and or their support to be on the program alongside names like Seb (Sebastian Vettel) and Daniel (Ricciardo) and Max (Verstappen) who’ve also been on the program and then gone into F1 with the main team, which is very nice,” says the young driver.
Being part of the Red Bull Junior Team also means valuable interactions with reigning World Champion Max Verstappen.
“I spoke a bit to Max. He’s always been very friendly and very nice to me, always very open to sort of give any advice or answer any questions I have. So he’s the only one I’ve really spoken to. He’s always been really nice and really friendly with me. I respect him a lot for that and it’s always been really good to talk to him,” says Arvid.
Road To F1: One Day At A Time
Arvid Lindblad’s rise to Formula 2 has been rather swift. He spent one year in Formula 4, followed by a year in Formula 3. Next year, he moves up to Formula 2. So one year in F2, and then F1?
“Yeah, that would be the plan. Obviously, it’s much easier said than done, but yeah, I’ve had a very fast rise through the ranks and progression in the last few years. So obviously I need to keep the same work ethic and same approach, and we’ll see what happens. F2 is obviously a very competitive championship and it definitely won’t be easy, but there’s no reason why I don’t think I’ll have a good year and hopefully do one year in the category,” says Arvid.
Is there a window or timeline he has set for himself? Well, yes and no. “I don’t think about it. I just wanna win races and I enjoy driving. I enjoy doing well. So I’m really thinking about F2 and trying to perform as best as I can in that. And then, all the rest will fall into place eventually.”
His mother Anita agrees with the young man’s perspective. “As strange as this might seem, we’ve taken it step by step. We have never really thought in terms of what the big prize is because it’s been irrelevant,” she says.
Arvid’s F1 dream isn’t without basis. Both Helmut Marko and Christian Horner have cited him as Formula One material. Does that add to the pressure of performing in F2 next year?
“Honestly, I don’t like to… It’s actually quite funny. I think it was a week ago they did an interview and my mum was actually talking to me about it. And I said to her that I don’t want to hear it because, for me, that’s irrelevant. Obviously, it’s very nice that they’re saying these things, but I’m saying that it’s not going to get me to Formula One,” says Arvid.
“All of that can go away very quickly. It’s very easy for that to just go to your head and then you get a sense of complacency. So yeah, I don’t think about it. I mean it’s good to know that I’m making them happy because they’re obviously going to be very important for my future. But I need to, like I said, just keep focused on my job and things will fall into place… I want to be in Formula One and I’ll just take every day as it comes and just focus on doing the best,” he adds.
Arvid can take heart from the fact that as many as six rookies will be joining the F1 grid in 2025. The latest addition is French-Algerian Isack Hadjar, who will be racing for Red Bull’s second team Racing Bulls, alongside Yuki Tsunoda. In the 2024 Formula 2 Championship, Hadjar was part of Campos Racing, the team Arvid joins next year.
Focus On F2
Formula 2 is not just a feeder series, but a competitive championship in its own right. And Arvid is heading into it next year with a new team. As a Prema driver in 2024, Arvid finished fourth in F3 despite being in the running for the title after a win on his debut in Bahrain Sprint, second place in Australian Sprint, points in Imola and Monaco and maiden feature race win in Spain. Then came the “magical weekend” in Silverstone. But it was a tough year thereafter as car trouble widened his gap to the title.
For Arvid, the positives of the year matter more as he heads into a new, more competitive series – one that would decide his F1 future.
“It was a really good year in general. I finished fourth in the championship. There were many records broken. I won the most races this year, so it was a really great year and much better than I expected. Obviously, coming from one year of F4 straight into F3, it’s very rare to be competitive, so I knew it was gonna be a big challenge. The last couple races I’m not worried about at all because I know what happened and I think it looked a lot worse than it actually was. So no, I don’t even think about it. I just learned from mistakes,” he says.
Not only is it a new series, but a new team as well. He moves from the Italian Prema Racing to the Spanish Campos Racing. So how has the culture shift been?
“It’s been OK really. I’ve raced in an Italian team for quite a few years with Prema. So I’ve been sort of in an Italian culture for a long time. So it’s a bit of a change, but honestly it’s been really good so far. The team (Campos) have been great to work with. They’re really hungry and passionate, and that’s the most important thing for me. It doesn’t really matter what nationality you are, what language you speak, in the end we’re all… The impression I get from the team is they are extremely motivated, they’re extremely hungry to win, which is exactly what I am. So it’s been really good so far and I’m really excited to work with them for next year,” says the British driver.
Back To Family, Fun And F1
As Arvid enjoys some family time in India, his nana and nani hope to see him race in F1 on the Indian circuit some day. On a lighter note, his octogenarian nani, who loves adventure, can’t wait to be driven around by her grandson once he gets his civilian driver’s licence while his nana is happy just watching. Arvid promises to be a “sensible” driver, saying he gets enough “thrill and adrenaline” on the racetrack.
Both have one piece of advice each for their grandson. Arvid’s nani Amarjeet Ahuja wants the young lad to remember that he is loved. “Always believe in yourself, be confident and remember that we love you. Unconditionally.”
His nana Anand Sheel Ahuja, from whom Arvid draws his middle name, wants him to be a warrior in life. “I was born in Kohar, which was North West Frontier Province between Afghanistan and India at that time. And Hindus were always a minority. But they fought their way. It’s like being a warrior. It’s probably part of our inheritance. So battle and fight.”
Watch Arvid Anand Lindblad bring some of that warrior spirit to the F2 grid in 2025.
