Arvid Lindblad was gearing up to face the English weather in F1 Canadian GP, but a clutch issue ended his race even before it started.
After a solid run on Friday and Saturday in 2026 F1 Canadian GP weekend, with two Top 10 finishes in qualifying and points in sprint race, Racing Bulls’ Lindblad was upbeat about his chances on Sunday – more so facing a weather like he is used to in Britain, with a bit of drizzle in the air.
But it wasn’t to be. As they lined up on the grid after the first formation lap, Lindblad had his hands up, as marshals pushed him back into the pitlane. With no space in the middle, the marshals had to push him towards pit entry, which forced the rest of the grid to go around for an extra formation lap.
Clutch issue derails Lindblad in F1 Canadian GP
It was not enough for Lindblad. The mechanics pushed him into the garage to retire, even before he could start the F1 Canadian GP. “Yeah, there was an issue with the clutch after the formation lap, so obviously I only figured out when the lights started coming on and it wouldn’t go in gear,” he said in the print media pen.
“So it was pretty, yeah it was a bit sketchy. It is a bit upsetting obviously to not get the chance to participate,” summed up Lindblad, who had optimism and wanted to race from the get go. He was ready to race in mixed conditions, which added a layer of complexity.
Lindblad was excited to race in ‘English weather’
“Yeah, but I was excited, in the end I’m English, there’s been a lot of times when I’ve been racing in the UK and it was half wet, half dry, and I couldn’t wait to get out on track,” continued Lindblad. “Yes, if it was a smooth, fully dry race it would have been quite simple.
“But I quite liked the fact that there was a bit of rain in the air, there were added complexities and that showed opportunity, and I was really, really up for it today, and I couldn’t wait for the race to get started from the moment I woke up this morning. Yeah, it’s just quite sad right now,” summed up Lindblad.
Miss opportunity to round off solid F1 Canadian GP weekend
Outside of the car speaking while the F1 Canadian GP was on, seeing the progress made by teammate Liam Lawson, who eventually finished seventh, Lindblad rued missed opportunity to round-off a complete weekend. “Yeah it has, it’s been a really good weekend,” he said.
“It’s just a bit sad not to get the reward for all the effort that I and the team put in. I think we did a pretty flawless job up to this point, so definitely looking at how the race is going now, we would have been quite solidly in the points I think if things had gone normally, so yeah, it’s a bit sad.”
Tyre strategy choice
Unlike few others around him, Lindblad chose to start on medium tyres as opposed to intermediate. He agreed that there was a bit of mist in the air, but the track was dry. “No, the track was dry,” he said. “Yeah, but the track was dry so we were going to go on slicks. I felt that on the formation lap.
“I mean yeah, there was mist in the air, I don’t know if they [intermediate starters] had rain coming on their forecast, if there was rain coming it wasn’t a silly decision, but in the end the rain didn’t come, so it wasn’t the right call and you can see that they all picked it off the intermediate ones,” summed up Lindblad.
