By graduating to Racing Bulls in 2026, Britain's Arvid Lindblad has delivered on his own childhood vision that he would somehow make it to Formula 1. Speaking exclusively to Motorsport.com, he tells all about his ambition, his Swedish-Indian family heritage and a promise he made to Lando Norris.
Tuesday's Racing Bulls announcement confirmed 18-year-old Lindblad will graduate to an F1 race seat in 2026, replacing the Red Bull Racing-bound Isack Hadjar. The Surrey-born youngster will be the fifth British racer on the 2026 grid and the 20th Red Bull junior driver to make it to F1, having been fast-tracked through the single-seater ladder since he joined in 2021 as a karting phenom.
Life has moved quickly for Lindblad, but making it all the way to Formula 1 was never just a distant dream. Despite the odds, it was a concrete ambition that he was somehow convinced he would achieve from a very early age. "It's been my dream to be in F1 since I started this journey when I was five, so having that come true is very special," Lindblad tells Motorsport.com in his first interview as an F1 driver.
"I don't come from a motorsport background. It was really a passion that I drove myself. When I was three, my dad put me on a motocross bike for the first time because he'd done a tiny bit when he was younger. That didn't last very long, as it was a bit too much for my mum. But then I went karting for the first time when I was five, and I just loved it instantly.
"After the first time, I already knew it was something I wanted to do. My earliest racing memories are from when I was four, when I sat down and watched F1 with my dad. And I remember asking, ‘How do I get there one day? Is it possible? What do you have to do?’
"I don't really know why — maybe I was a bit naive — but I just had this inner belief that I'd be there. Not in an arrogant way; it was more like I knew I wanted to be in F1 and I was going to do anything to make that happen. From the moment I started, I never envisioned a future where I wasn't. I always believed that I would be in F1."
Lindblad also holds Swedish nationality through his father and has Indian roots through his maternal side of the family, two sides of his heritage he connects strongly with. "My paternal grandparents still live in Sweden, so I visit them as often as I can," he says. "My mum's parents lived in the UK, and they held on to their traditional Indian roots and culture. I've always enjoyed eating my grandma's amazing Indian food. I went to India for the first time last year, and I was really engrossed in the Indian culture.
"When I look at my parents, the biggest thing I've learned from them is that I'm very fortunate to be born into a family where I have the opportunity to be a racing driver. Because unfortunately, with the way the sport is, it's not an opportunity that everyone has. My dad comes from a small village in Smaland and very humble beginnings. He had a job when he was 11, cleaning toilets and working a paper route. He really worked hard his whole life to create the opportunities that I have, and I have massive respect for him.
"The same goes for my mum. My grandparents were involved in the Partition; they lived in a part of India that became Pakistan, and they lost everything. They had to work extremely hard. They ended up moving to the UK to become doctors. There's a portrait of my grandmother in a museum because she worked as a GP until she was 82. She only retired a couple of years ago.
"I'm very proud that I come from a family that had to work for the opportunities they created. And I'm very fortunate that I'm not quite in that position, but I still try to be humble and down to earth. The racing is something between me and my dad. Education is very important to my mum, so the idea of me missing a bit of school was very difficult for her at first. She was saying to my dad: ‘If he doesn't have what it takes, can we please stop? Because it's expensive and we need to do other things.’ But I was always working hard and driving pretty well, so it was hard to give up!"
It turns out Lindblad did show glimpses of “the right stuff” in karting, winning the LGM Series and the British Championship in the IAME Cadet series in 2017. It was the sign to take his career to the European scene, leading to titles and a collection of top-three finishes in OK-J and OK at both European and world championship level, including winning the inaugural 2020 Champions of the Future event in OK-J, and the WSK Euro Series and Final Cup the following year - succeeding Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the former.
It was in 2021 that the then 14-year-old had a brief encounter with Norris, when the McLaren driver launched his own karting chassis at the same track Lindblad was driving. "I told my friend: ‘I think I'm going up to Lando.’ And he was like: ‘Oh no, you don't have the guts.’ I didn't really know what I was going to say, and the first thing that came out was: ‘I want you to remember me. I'm going to see you in five years.’ I'd gotten a bit of inspiration from the Lewis Hamilton–Ron Dennis story, saying, ‘I'm going to drive one of your cars one day.’
"I think he was taken aback a bit and said something like: ‘Oh, that's nice to think of it.’ I'm sure there are lots of people that say those kinds of things, so it didn't really mean anything at the time. But like I said, I had this belief I would make it to F1. I had it when I said that to Lando, and I have that same sort of belief today. It's a funny story to look back on, because it will become true. It will be five years."
By that time, Lindblad's career had already shifted into a higher gear after his father Stefan received a call from an unknown number when the Lindblads were out testing in Portugal. "We were at breakfast in the hotel when the phone started ringing," he recounts. "I don't remember the number, but at the bottom it said ‘Graz, Austria’. My dad had a bit of a skip in his step, and he said Helmut Marko wanted to meet us. I was excited to meet the man who had put world champions like Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen in F1.
"It's funny because I hear and read things, but that's not what I experienced. I've always had a really good relationship with Dr Marko. We've always been very honest with each other. He doesn't really like excuses. I don't really like to make excuses. We've always been very open, which has helped me develop. I'm grateful for the opportunity, but I also have to thank the entire Red Bull Junior Programme. Rocky [Guillaume Roquelin] has been very involved, and there's a whole team behind it."
Much like Mercedes rookie Antonelli, who is 12 months his senior, things started moving at breakneck speed once Lindblad switched to racing cars towards the end of 2022. He took third in his first full season of Italian F4 in 2023 and won the prestigious Macau Grand Prix, which set him on a path to F3 and F2. But crucially, it also convinced Marko and Red Bull that Lindblad could be the next heir in line after Hadjar, preparing him for F1 with private testing and simulator work.
So, how ready does Lindblad feel for his biggest challenge yet? "Being honest, I think I'm not 100% ready, but that's normal," he acknowledges. "I've progressed through the ranks very quickly, so I'm used to being in the position where I'm sort of thrown in the deep end and have to find a way to figure it out. I have full confidence in myself that I'll find a way."
The unknowns surrounding the huge 2026 regulation changes make predictions impossible. But Lindblad is keen to become the best version of himself. When asked what will make 2026 a success, he replies: "What's going to make 2026 a good year is that by working hard and learning a lot, I'm going to come out a much better driver than I went in.
"It is a clean slate for everyone with the new cars, so you could say it's an advantage to come in now. But there are two sides to the coin. F1 will be very different to what we have now, so I still think the experienced guys will have an advantage. There's a lot to learn, and I need to just focus on that and getting the best out of myself."
In 2026 Lindblad will be thrown in at the deep end once more, and he will still have everything to prove. But he has also already proven one thing to himself: he has made it to Formula 1, just like he always envisioned.
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