Arvid Lindblad: “I won’t dwell on the fact that I crashed.”
An unapologetic Arvid Lindblad has stood by his right to make errors after his crash during FP2 at Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix – which didn’t stop the rookie from qualifying in 10th place.
Lindblad lost control of his Racing Bulls at Turn 13 in Madrid, causing damage to the right side of the VCARB 03. This incident curtailed his running on Friday, and with a chassis change necessary, he managed only seven laps at the conclusion of FP3.
Nevertheless, the Anglo-Swedish driver matched interim teammate Yuki Tsunoda’s pace in Q1 and outpaced him by 0.9 seconds in Q2, securing a position in the top 10 during qualifying.
“The reality is we missed – I don’t want to say ‘two sessions of learning’, but we were hesitant to make changes after FP2 because of the crash. Then we didn’t have a proper run in FP3, so we opted not to make any adjustments. Essentially, we relied solely on FP1 for the setup. I have the same setup as what we decided after FP1.
“I firmly believe that had I not had that crash yesterday, the path to qualifying would have been quite different and I would have felt much better.”
Lindblad acknowledges that his collision complicated his weekend, but he insists that such mistakes are to be anticipated from F1’s fourth-youngest driver ever.
“It is what it is, it’s a learning opportunity,” he remarked. “I won’t dwell on my crash, as it’s something that happens in racing.
“I’ve been right on the edge this season, I’ve been incredibly fast. This marks my 10th Q3 appearance of the season [excluding sprints]. I’m allowed to make mistakes. I’m going to learn from this.”
Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls
Lindblad’s consistency has indeed been noteworthy, as he has yet to retire from a grand prix – though he did not start the race in Montreal due to a clutch issue. He has scored points in seven of the last eight rounds, is on a streak of nine Q3 appearances, and hasn’t been outqualified by a teammate since the Silverstone sprint.
Thus, the Racing Bulls driver’s speed has been equally commendable, highlighted by his fourth-place finish in FP2, which he achieved despite crashing early on. Does that indicate what might have been?
“I wasn’t going to be P4 today,” he laughed. “I mean, I can’t go one second quicker.
“The leading teams clearly made progress. The reality is perhaps our crew just executed a better starting setup, so we began closer to the front.
“So this is where we rightfully belong. The truth is yesterday was something exceptional. I believe I was ahead of the curve, and the team was also ahead of the curve. But there’s no disguising the fact that we aren’t P4. So the truth is tomorrow we will try to perform our best. But P9, unless someone crashes, is the best possible outcome.”
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