Following a superb debut at the 2026 Australian GP, F1 rookie Arvid Lindblad had a far tougher time at the Chinese round last weekend. He finished the race in P12.
Having stopped on track in FP1, and then an early end to his Sprint race following an opening lap spin, the Brit qualified in P15.
However, a dramatic and crazy first lap in the Grand Prix saw him gain a whopping seven spots, although he did lose out on the exit of the hairpin to teammate Liam Lawson as the Kiwi got his elbows out.
Seven laps later it looked like cars #30 and #41 would swap positions for P8, but the rookie locked up. Lawson was not happy as they both lost time. Eventually on the next tour Lindblad made the move stick.
Ultimately his race went wrong for two reasons: a lap 10 safety car ruined his strategy of starting on hards and gave most of the field a free stop. That was followed by a spin on lap 27. It cost him over 10s, turning out to hurt him badly as he finished just over that time loss away from Franco Colapinto in 10th.
Arvid Lindblad on a difficult weekend at the 2026 F1 Chinese GP
“Yeah, the start I think was quite good, I think I made up a few places on lap one,” said the 18-year-old in the print media pen.
“Then, unfortunately, the timing of the safety car just didn’t really help our strategy, it wasn’t really possible to pit at that point onto the medium because it was just too long left, we were forced to stay out.
“And, unfortunately, no intervention came to let us pit under [a VSC or safety car], so we just lost a lot of time there.
“And then just struggled a lot in the middle part of the race with everyone else on new tyres around me.
“I think there’s a lot of things to look into, some things to improve for sure. It’s not been an easy weekend, but I think there’s a lot to learn and I’m just going to focus on what I can do better for Japan.”
A whopping 42-lap stint on hards eventually came to an end. A lock-up trying to pass his teammate 34 tours earlier damaged his right front tyre, which also impacted his Sunday afternoon.
“Yeah, it wasn’t the easiest, I mean I damaged the tyre a little bit in the first few laps, which meant the stint was quite long and not the easiest on that side, having to sort of nurse those issues.
“Yeah, not much to say, it was a long first stint.”
The rookie on his spin
On lap 27, Arvid Lindblad spun at the hairpin in the 2026 F1 Chinese GP. Having got in a little bit too deep, the car came around on him as he struggled on old tyres.
“Yeah, just been struggling a bit with the car in braking this week and on the used tyre I made a mistake.”
Just racing
Asked about Liam Lawson’s complaints over the radio about the shenanigans early doors, the driver of car 41 was unbothered by it.
“I don’t know, I was racing, yeah.”
