Arvid Lindblad currently finds himself third in the Formula 2 Driver Championship after an incredible first half of the season. The 17-year-old has shown consistent improvement and growth throughout the first six rounds of the FIA F2 Championship.
Lindblad even battled his way to his first win in F2 after a marvellous drive at the Spanish GP. The racing driver has been part of the Red Bull Junior Team since 2021, joining at the young age of only thirteen.
From no points to consistently in the points
The first round in Australia is the only race weekend that left Lindblad without points. As the feature race was cancelled due to extreme weather conditions, it was not the best weekend for the Formula 2 drivers.
The sprint race had him lining up tenth, however he did not manage to sneak up into the points. After a rather unfortunate weekend, the Brit has been consistently impressive, and scored points every round since.
The team’s impressive consistency is something their team principle, Adrian Campos Jr. has valued this season, stating:
“I think we’ve been one of the teams that is always competitive. We might not always be the quickest each weekend, but we are always competitive. We normally don’t struggle, and we have very good pace. That’s something I’m very happy with so far this season, very happy with the team.”
The next race weekend was better for the young talent. The Campos driver secured his first points in Bahrain during a tricky sprint race, where he finished 8th, despite qualifying sixteenth. After several penalties were applied, Lindblad got bumped up one position.
Making his original P6 at the end of the race a P5 finish. The chaotic feature race had Lindblad battling his way through the field, and he managed to end the race with a P8 finish. The Campos driver secured 8 points for the team over the course of the Bahrain GP weekend.
Setting records at 17 years old
Round three in Jeddah had the Red Bull junior come back even stronger. Lindblad marvellously raced his way to his first sprint race victory in F2. After qualifying P5, but starting the sprint race P6, the young talent had quite the fight in front of him.
When the cars lined up on the grid and the lights went out, both Lindblad and his teammate, Pepe Marti, had a fantastic launch, immediately gaining positions. Already at the start of the first lap, Lindblad found himself fourth. After the virtual safety car, due to Shields DNFing on lap 1, ended, the restart offered another opportunity to overtake. Lindblad went around the inside of Mini’s Prema and managed to overtake him quickly.
The sprint race forced the Campos teammates to race each other hard but smart, and at the end of the battle when Marti went wide on lap 8, Lindblad came out on top. Having already made up four positions in the sprint early on, the possibility of a win was becoming increasingly real for the Red Bull junior.
When the second safety car of the sprint left, after Crawford and Mini had a tussle, the opportunities opened. At the end of lap 19 out of 20, it was announced that the race leader, Verschoor, received a 5-second penalty for pushing another driver off track.
Thus securing the sprint win for Lindblad, who was 1.5 seconds behind the leader, making him the youngest winner at this track in F2 history. With his teammate in second place, it became the first 1-2 finish for the team this season. The rookie driver found the top step of the podium on the Jeddah circuit, at which he had never raced at before.
The triple header of possibilities
The triple header began in the chaos that was Imola. The qualifying session oddly ended because of a red flag even when there were six minutes left. Lindblad would be lining up P5 for the sprint race. The Campos driver had a mega start in the sprint race, where he went on the outside of Browning and launched himself into third place.
After a great overtake on the inside of Miyata on lap 12, he grabbed P2, which is where he finished the sprint race as well. Another point finish for Lindblad and another podium secured truly started the triple header on a high. During the feature race, he managed to gain two positions. However, more than a P4 finish was unfortunately not possible for the Red Bull junior.
Next were the narrow streets of Monte Carlo, where Lindblad lined up fifth on the grid after a solid qualifying. First came the busy sprint race. The Campos driver had to get his elbows out in order to fight his way up. He even made a bold move down the inside of Crawford in Turn 5 that nearly took the American out during lap 1.
The incident resulted in a 10-second time penalty for the Brit, which took away what would have been another podium finish. Falling from P3 to P8, as a result of the penalty, was immensely unfortunate for the Red Bull junior.
The feature race had a similar ending, as Lindblad was set to finish P3. However, as he received a 5-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane, it dropped him down to fifth place.
Historic weekend in Spain
Fortunately, Lindblad bounced back stronger in Spain, where he made history. Not only did he get his first F2 feature race win, but he also made another record. After an amazing qualifying, the Campos Racing driver took his first pole with a brilliant lap of 1.25:180.
The incredible qualifying lap makes him the youngest pole sitter in F2. The sprint race in Barcelona was quite tricky for the driver as he started ninth due to the reserve sprint grid. With Dunne getting a penalty which bumped him up one position.
The sprint race was tumultuous as Verschoor made contact with Lindblad in Turn 1 on lap 14 causing him to spin wide. Luckily, the Red Bull junior was able to get going again and fought his way back to P9.
Then came the brightest moment of the weekend for Lindblad in the feature race, where he raced to his first feature race victory. After starting on pole, the Campos driver had a remarkable launch and managed to have a clear start.
Quickly attempting to create a gap to the drivers behind was key in the early part of the race. By lap 12, he had created a 9.9 second gap to his teammate in second place.
However, as he had to box that same lap, it put him at P12 for a short moment. It was immensely important for the Campos driver to warm up the hard tires simultaneously as passing through the traffic ahead.
Fortunately, Lindblad did an incredible job at both. He climbed his way up to the back of the drivers who were yet to pit. The team also did a wonderful job with both the pit stop and the strategy. By lap 26, Lindblad took his spot as the race leader back with a 3-second gap to the car behind.
From there on, the Campos driver needed a clean couple of laps. Even with the safety car coming out, the driver managed. After an unbelievable drive, Arvid Lindblad was ecstatic to achieve his first feature race win in Formula 2.
Lindblad awarded Super Licence
Recently, Red Bull Racing filed a request for special exemption for a Super Licence for the young talent. The FIA approved this request to grant the Campos driver a Super Licence. The Super Licence allows the 17-year-old to participate in Formula 1 sessions. It is likely that Lindblad will take part in an FP1 session later this year.
Usually, a driver would need to be 18 years old. A driver possessing a valid driving licence also used to be needed if one wanted to be approved for a Super Licence.
However, last year, the FIA made adjustments to the sporting code. Adding that if the FIA believes a driver to “have recently and consistently demonstrated outstanding ability and maturity in a single-seater formula car competition may be granted a Super Licence at the age of 17 years old.”
The change to the sporting regulations that grant the FIA to make exceptions also allowed Kimi Antonelli to receive his Super Licence last year. Lindblad’s turn to be granted the exception came early this year.
There has been plenty of speculation regarding Red Bull driver changes. Especially, considering that Max Verstappen has accumulated 11 penalty points. If a driver reaches 12 penalty points, they receive a race ban. Red Bull would have to find a driver to race in his place for one F1 race if this were to happen.
Next step for the young talent
Round 7 of the F2 championship is coming up next week in Austria. It is undoubtable that the Red Bull junior intends to keep the great momentum going. After an incredible weekend in Barcelona, the young talent has truly proved how much he has grown as a driver.
Team Principle of Campos Racing, Adrian Campos Jr., appears to believe that the team can continue to deliver in Austria next week, stating:
“Arvid is also improving very quickly, race-by-race, and it’s showing in the potential that our car has. I’m sure that we will be there in one or both of the races in Red Bull Ring, and I’m sure that Pepe will be quick enough to get that confidence back and start fighting for wins again.”
After ending round 6 on a high, Campos will likely try to recreate the spectacular weekend where they got their first win on home soil in Spain and scored double points for the team. Hopefully, there will be an opportunity to see Lindblad partake in an FP1 session later this year. The young driver has been immensely impressive and is someone to keep an eye out for.
