In an exclusive interview with Motorsport Week, Arvid Lindblad has revealed how he coped with the speculation surrounding his eventual switch to Formula 1, whilst remaining in the Formula 2 title fight.
The 18-year-old had a busy 2025, which started with a Formula Regional Oceania Championship title with MP Motorsport.
And with a swift step up to F2 from Formula 3, Lindblad immediately took to the next step on the feeder ladder well, becoming a race-winner as early as Jeddah.
As the summer wore on, and with another F2 win under his belt, he was afforded early access to the FIA super license, and was subsequently handed an FP1 appearance for Red Bull at Silverstone.
With Isack Hadjar impressing at Racing Bulls, the rumour mill began to churn significantly across the Red Bull family, resulting in Hadjar eventually being promoted to Max Verstappen’s team-mate for 2026.
And with Lindblad was given the task of filling that void, he will, at 18 years and 212 days by the time of the season-opener in Melbourne, become the fourth-youngest driver of all-time to make his F1 debut.
In an exclusive interview with Motorsport Week, Lindblad was asked how he coped with balancing his F2 title battle with the constant speculation of the impending Racing Bulls seat being handed to him.
“Yeah. It wasn’t really something I thought of too much. I mean, I knew what was going on, so, yeah, I don’t know,” he revealed.
“I was just focused on driving. In the end, thinking about ifs and buts and maybes, you know, that’s not going to make me go faster.
“So I really just focused on sort of switching that off and just focusing on the driving in F2 because that was the thing that was going to give me the best opportunity to have the seat.”
‘Constant development’ of new F1 era will keep Arvid Lindblad from personal goals
Every F1 rookie will naturally be keen to hit the ground running early and improve along the season.
But the new regulations reset is throwing up increasing unpredictability, and drivers, no matter how experienced they are, are constantly learning the nuances of driving the new cars.
Lindblad therefore, whilst making personal targets, is also wary that the “evolution” of the sport across this season will ensure that he will stop short of any specific, longer-term aspirations.
“Yeah, I mean, obviously I set goals for myself because I feel like having goals is important because it’s something to work towards,” he said.
“But at the same time, things are so different this year. I think F1 is always sort of in constant development.
“It’s not like it just changes year to year. It’s like a constant cycle, an evolution. And I think there’s going to be even more of that this year.
“So like you said, things are going to change every weekend. So I’m setting goals. But at the same time, I’m very focused on just taking it race by race and just focussing on myself.
“I’m not going to think too much about, you know, ‘I want to finish here or there’, because there’s a lot of things in that that are out of my control.
“So I’m just focused on doing as best as I can and trying to get the most out of the package.”
READ MORE – Interview: Arvid Lindblad reveals atypical pre-season prep ahead of F1 debut