Arvid Lindblad had an eventful but ultimately encouraging afternoon at the 2026 F1 United States GP. The Racing Bulls rookie qualified ninth but received a five-place grid penalty after taking his sixth internal combustion engine (ICE) of the season, exceeding the permitted allocation and dropping him to P14 on the starting grid.
Lindblad eventually crossed the line in P12 after contact with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto at Turn 1 on Lap 25, alongside a difficult strategic situation that compromised his race.
Lindblad struggles to make progress in opening stint at 2026 F1 United States GP
Reflecting on his afternoon, Lindblad admitted that his opening lap had not gone as planned, with the Briton eager to review the race with his team to understand where he could have made further progress. He did make up one place thanks to a horrible launch for Nico Hülkenberg, and another one as Ollie Bearman hit trouble with damage.
“I think it was OK. I mean, honestly, I need to review a bit with the team what happened, because, I mean, I was on a bit of a different race than most of the cars around, trying to do a two-stop. So, I don’t know exactly what happened. I think for the most part it was decent. I mean, in the end, lap one wasn’t as good as I’d hoped.”
The Racing Bulls rookie then explained how difficulties during his opening stint and time lost battling Franco Colapinto prevented him from undercutting Pierre Gasly.
”I hadn’t made as much progress as I would have liked. And then, I struggled a little bit on the first stint, but then the start of the second stint was good. I’d made some good progress, but then obviously got caught up a lot with Franco [Colapinto]. I lost a lot of time with him, trying to back me up. So, I wasn’t able to get Pierre. I still tried to push to get him, but I wasn’t really able to. And then that kind of hurt me for the rest of the medium stint. I mean, anyway, I was going to do a two-stop, but I kind of made sure that I had to do a two-stop, which I don’t think really was the right strategy today. But I think there was positives.”
Mixed strategy leaves Lindblad with positives
Despite the strategic difficulties, Lindblad believed his race pace had improved compared with previous rounds, giving him more encouragement heading into the next race.
“I think the pace in some parts was decent. So, we’ll continue to work. Like I’ve said before, the race has been a little bit weaker so far this year, but I think today was a step forward. So, see what I can do better and move on to the next step.”
When asked about the two-stop strategy being wrong in the end and the reason being because of the difficulty in overtaking. The Racing Bulls driver stated, “No, it just wasn’t much [tyre degradation].”
The decision to two-stop ultimately saw him lose position to the German in the Audi.
Lindblad maintains confidence in qualifying
Lindblad also reflected on his qualifying performance during the weekend and the season as a whole.
The Briton highlighted the confidence he has in putting together a lap when it matters. Having looked a bit behind Lawson through Friday and Saturday, he delivered in Q2 to be P9.
”Yeah, I mean, I’ve always been pretty good in quali. I’ve always felt good when you need to put the lap together. I think I’ve done a good job of that all year.”
Despite finishing narrowly outside of the points, the Racing Bulls driver revealed he felt that the pace he had at the 2026 F1 United States GP was positive. It was the best he felt in the car all season. He suggested that the upgrade Racing Bulls brought to the weekend played a very significant role in the positive weekend for Lindblad.
“I would say, honestly, I felt today in the race the best that I’ve felt with the car in the race so far this year. So maybe that comes from the upgrade. I don’t know. I honestly was enjoying driving the car today. It was probably one of the more enjoyable races of the year, doing the two-stop, coming through the field. It was pretty flat-out. It was quite fun.”
Lindblad explains collision with Colapinto in 2026 F1 United States GP
Lindblad also explained the circumstances surrounding his collision with Frano Colapinto at Turn 1 on Lap 25. Having stopped early for medium tyres, he had made progress through the field and entered the undercut range of Colapinto’s teammate Pierre Gasly.
Alpine responded by getting Colapinto to hold him up, costing the Racing Bulls driver valuable time on Lap 24 as he went from 1:41s to a 1:43. As the rookie made the move around the outside into Turn 1, the Argentinian was deep, meaning he tagged the Racing Bulls and spun. The contact ended Colapinto’s race.
Without that, he would have cleared the 2020 Italian GP winner, although another stop was probably required for him.
“Yeah, it was all a bit of a mess. Obviously, I’d boxed early onto the medium and I’d made some good progress, and I got into his [Pierre Gasly] undercut window. Obviously, the Alpine were aware of that, so they told Franco to back me up, and I lost two seconds with the guy in half a lap.
“And then I was committed. I’d done the move on him into Turn 1. I’d already done him on the brakes, but he was trying to… I don’t really know what gap he was going for. I was committed to do Pierre as well, but he [Colapinto] tried to keep his nose in and spun himself around.”
