Arvid Lindblad on Karting, Racing in F3, and Why Silverstone Has a Special Place in His Heart

Young British driver Arvid Lindblad has taken the world of motorsport by storm, in a meteoric rise through the ranks from karting to single seater racing. Beginning his karting career at the age of five, Arvid partnered with current Formula E driver Oliver Rowland in 2018 to continue his karting success, before joining the Red Bull Junior Team in 2020, aged only 13. He made the move to cars towards the end of 2022 in Italian F4 and had his first full year in 2023. Arvid dominated much of his first full season in Italian F4 until car problems arrested his championship, and he lost his large lead. However, his car was completely replaced, and then went on to win the iconic Macau Grand Prix at the end of 2023.

Now, at 16, Arvid is in his rookie year of the FIA Formula 3 Championship with PREMA, where he won the first F3 sprint race of the year and his first feature race in Barcelona to be crowned the youngest winner in both. Silverstone caught up with Arvid to talk about his successful career so far, as well as the special place Silverstone has always held in his heart.

Arvid had his first taste of motorsport when he was three. His dad spent his teenage years in motocross just for fun, and introduced it to Arvid, but the immediate passion wasn’t there. However, when he was five, he had his first go in a kart, and everything started from that point.

“My dad and the paternal side of my family pushed me to get into it,” Arvid says. “My dad’s dad is a huge motorsport fan, so anything with wheels and an engine, he just loves, so the passion definitely came from there.

“It was more when I was three or four and my dad would have the F1 on; from an early age, I liked Lewis Hamilton.”

Although there was the initial push from his dad, Arvid soon found himself enjoying Formula 1 and developing his own determination.

“I’d watch F1 and ask, ‘how do I get there?’, wanting to be there,” he says. “I enjoyed the sport; I had the passion for it and I wanted to be competing in Formula 1.”

It’s common for racing drivers and their families to make sacrifices on the pathway to chasing their dream, and Arvid is no stranger to sacrificing what many other teenagers might take for granted.

“Friendships were super tough,” Arvid says. “Even now, I have three close friends and they’re all from racing. From a social side, it’s always been very difficult and it’s been a sacrifice from me from a young age.”

Friendships aren’t the only thing Arvid has had to sacrifice over the years. Education has always been a huge part of his life, and mum Anita Ahuja has always been super keen on making sure Arvid performs well academically.

In 2019, when Arvid was studying for his 11 plus exams, he didn’t drive for almost five months.

“There were definitely things I did that were different to others because in my family, there was always this real importance given to education,” he says. “It never really hindered me, it was never a negative.

“At times, I even feel it’s a positive because there’s so much going on sometimes in a season and it’s so stressful, having something to take your mind off of it is also a good thing; maybe some people don’t see it as relaxing, but I enjoyed quite a lot of the content.”

Last year, Arvid concluded his GCSEs in the middle of the year and mixing studying with racing didn’t hinder his performance at all.

“It actually helped the race after my exams,” Arvid says. “It was my best race of the year.”

Now studying for two of his A Levels in Maths and Chemistry, Arvid still has that disconnect from racing. 

Arvid has a number of karting championships to his name, and one of his most special memories from his karting career came in 2018 when he won the British Championship in the LGM Series. Other championship wins, and special moments for Arvid, include the WSK Super Master Series in 2020 and the WSK Euro Series in 2021.

A few years into his karting career, Arvid began working with Oliver Rowland, who has a plethora of racing experience to his name and currently drives for the Nissan Formula E Team in the all-electric championship. Arvid met Oliver when he was seven and karting with Zip; the team had a link with the Racing Steps Foundation, and Arvid’s dad was very keen on driver coaches. He asked if any of the RSF drivers had a weekend off and if they wanted to make some extra money, they could come and work with Arvid. Every six months, he and Ollie would work together for a day.

“When I was nine, we set up a karting team together and it’s still going now,” Arvid says. “We won the Vice British Championship the first year and the British Championship the second year; I’ve been working with him very closely since then.”

When Arvid began racing in Europe from 2019 onwards, Oliver didn’t attend every race weekend because of his own racing commitments, but they would be in contact every day at the races, and now, since Arvid has stepped up to FIA Formula 3, Oliver is even more involved.

“Working with Ollie has been instrumental to my career,” Arvid says. “Other than my parents, he’s the most influential person and I wouldn’t be where I am today without him.

“I probably would’ve stopped or been lost somewhere if it wasn’t for him; having his knowledge and expertise, I can’t describe how much of a difference it has made.”

While there was always a passion for motorsport and racing in Arvid’s family, without Oliver, there would have been so many things that the family wouldn’t know how to approach; unlike other families involved in racing, Arvid’s doesn’t know the inside out of motorsport.

“It’s an interesting relationship because a lot of people may see from the outside that Oliver is like my coach, which he is to a point, but because I’ve known him for so long, it’s like he’s family.

“I don’t see him as my boss, it’s more family, and it’s more of a deeper relationship than I think a lot of people appreciate. Having him, he’s done it in motorsport, and he’s done it all quite recently.”

Shortly after Arvid turned 13, he and his dad were enjoying breakfast in a hotel in Portimão one race weekend, when the phone rang with an Austrian number flashing on the screen. At the time, Arvid didn’t think too much of it, but he noticed his dad had quite the skip in his step when he answered the call and left the table.

“He came back and told me that Dr Helmut Marko wanted to have a meeting with us to join the Red Bull Junior programme,” Arvid remembers. “It was a very surreal moment and I definitely wasn’t expecting it.

“I even got a bit emotional afterwards because it was such a cool thing, and especially because I was so young at the time.”

With a lot of conversations going on behind the scenes ahead of Arvid joining Red Bull during the second half of 2020, Arvid was very much focused on his racing and proving that he was worthy of a spot on such a prestigious programme. For any young driver, having your name attached to an F1 team is hugely beneficial, but the knowledge and the expertise of those working within Red Bull is absolutely priceless.

“Red Bull give opportunities to the drivers they think are deserving of it,” Arvid says. “In the end, we both want the same thing: they want the best drivers they can get, I want to be in Formula 1, so if I’m not performing, then you can’t blame them.”
 

Arvid has never raced at Silverstone before. In fact, he hasn’t raced at any circuit in England since 2018, so this year’s British Grand Prix will be a special homecoming for the young Brit.

The biggest challenge of Formula 3 is the limited drive time, which makes a race weekend extremely difficult for inexperienced and rookie drivers.

“I’m probably the perfect embodiment of that,” Arvid says. “For me, that was the biggest challenge going into this year, so trying to prepare as best as possible for each circuit is super important.”

Most of the circuits on this year’s F3 calendar are ones Arvid already has knowledge of, but Silverstone remained a circuit he’d had very limited drive time on, so he took part in a GB3 test earlier this year to build knowledge of the circuit, so that on race weekend, it’s a factor he doesn’t have to worry about.

“We have a 45-minute practice session, but because of the way the tyres work, the format and many other things, we don’t end up utilising those 45 minutes,” Arvid explains. “Normally, it’s three or four push laps in practice, which is very little, and if you’re trying to learn the track on those laps and get a feeling for the limit, there’s a lot going on and that’s very challenging.”

Despite having only driven Silverstone for a BRDC Young Driver event and during the GB3 test, the Home of British Motorsport has always been a special circuit for Arvid. With F1 drivers always excited for the British Grand Prix and a number of teams based around the circuit, it’s the race Arvid is most looking forward to in 2024.

“There aren’t really many fans for F3 at other circuits, but Silverstone is the one track I’ve heard that there are people at 8:30 in the morning who do come and watch,” he says. “Seeing some British flags will be a super cool moment; maybe some people get a bit nervous or feel the pressure from it, but I love the buzz and the atmosphere so I can’t wait.”

When Arvid was younger and just finding his passion for motorsport, he would play on the F1 game and race at Silverstone more often than not. Even though he didn’t know it at the time, this was preparing him to drive the circuit in real life, behind the wheel of a racing car.

“The first time I drove the circuit was at a BRDC last year,” Arvid says. “I went on the track and it was like I knew it inside out, although I’d never driven it before; I’d never even done simulator work, but I just rocked up and I knew it better than any other track I’d driven.

“I had all those years of experience of the F1 game. It’s just always been about Silverstone.”

This year, Arvid made his debut in the FIA Formula 3 Championship with current Teams Champion, PREMA Racing, so he is currently travelling the world alongside the F1 race calendar as a support event.

“Racing on F1 weekends is so cool,” he says. “People probably don’t appreciate it but I’m still an F1 fan and I do this because I love the sport, I love driving the cars, so being there on F1 weekend is pretty cool.

“The biggest thing is the realisation that I’m not that far away [from F1] anymore.”

Arvid’s 2024 campaign started in the absolute best way possible, as he took his first win in the category in the first race of the season: the Sprint Race in Bahrain. After pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, Arvid had banked three days of experience around the track.

“I did a good job in the race and I managed it well, and it just filled me with a lot of confidence, knowing that if I keep working, then I can do well,” Arvid says. “I am really happy with my performance; the first two races I performed well in the sprint races. From Imola, I stepped up my qualifying and improved my feature race performances.

“Monaco was a real highlight on a track I have never driven before; I finished fourth and I am really proud of that.”

Arvid hopes to use the rest of this year in what is a super competitive championship to keep pushing and take more success in feature races. He knows that he has to continue performing well in F3 and, when he gets the opportunity, perform well in Formula 2.

On Spanish Grand Prix weekend, Arvid stormed to take his second victory of the season in the feature race and is the only repeat winner of 2024 in F3. Arvid now sits in a comfortable P4 in the Drivers’ Standings, with 71 points.

And Arvid’s ultimate career goal?

“Be a Formula 1 World Champion,” he says. “Ideally more than once.”

Image Credit: Joan Codina - Gregory Heirman