Racing Bulls’ rookie driver Arvid Lindblad secured a rather positive P9 finish in the 2026 F1 Spanish GP for an impressive eighth points finish in his last nine races completed in the championship. In spite of being able to add additional points to his overall tally, Lindblad remained not satisfied with his overall race and weekend performance.
Lindblad’s F1 Spanish GP struggles had begun during FP2
The Brit had suffered from a heavy impact during the second practice session on Friday at the Madring, and had to rebuild from scratch afterwards his confidence and the feeling with the new chassis for this VCARB 03. Following the repairs, he missed part of FP3, but was still able to secure a strong P10 starting position.
All in all, the actual Madrid race reserved little action. While he had managed to get by Oscar Piastri at the start, he trailed Franco Colapinto throughout the 57-lap contest in the fight for midfield supremacy. They both boxed under the VSC and ran to the end on hards.
Ultimately, the McLaren driver managed to get by in the closing laps into turn 1, leaving the young talent in P9. Lewis Hamilton’s early DNF handed him that extra point.
Arvid Lindblad described how he overcame his tricky build-up to the F1 Spanish GP, underlining his mental resilience and how he managed to build on his experience to make the most out of this race.
“I think it’s good. I think I’ve shown it all year that when things go difficult I can still bounce back. Many times… in Japan with an issue [gearbox], in Budapest the same, same here. This time, it was a bit more my own fault, but I think I’m happy with how we bounced back.
“It wasn’t easy, I lost a lot of confidence, which is so important on a street circuit. I missed basically all of FP3. I wasn’t happy in qualifying, but I managed to put a lap together and put it in Q3. Today I felt a little bit better, still not super happy, but it was alright. I think that was the most achievable, and I’m happy with how we bounced back because it was a tricky weekend.”
Late race drama or a simple duel for P9?
Towards the latter stages of the race, Lindblad was involved in a battle to defend his position from Audi’s Nico Hülkenberg. He had to awkwardly let race leader Kimi Antonelli by in turn 20 seconds beforehand.
The Racing Bulls driver downplayed the significance of the brief defence in the final corner.
“Not much to say to be honest. I had to let through Kimi and the leaders, I lost quite a lot of time there. Then he was a bit close to me, so I defended into Turn 1, I went into position and that was it. It wasn’t really much of a fight to be honest.”
Lindblad concluded remarking the strong potential of his VCARB 03 in the race. While the pace was consistent and good, ultimately following Franco Colapinto very closely for many laps penalised the Brit, who suffered from additional tyre degradation. It also potentially cost him a shot at holding Oscar Piastri off as the Aussie pitted late.
“Honestly, the pace was pretty good. I was right on Franco’s gearbox for a long part of the race. I was trying what I could, trying to be smart tactically, all that sort of stuff, to force an overtake, to find something, but there was just no real way through. Then, obviously running so close to him for so long, I paid a bit of a price towards the end.”
