Arvid Lindblad: fast, fresh + fearless

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3:26I started this journey when I was five. And I always believed I could be in Formula One. As I got closer to the race, I felt like I was getting more calm instead of more nervous. Our journey around the world to crown a champion is about to begin. The grandstands are completely packed. Everything's so exciting. I remember sitting on the grid before the race, just, like, really feeling the moment, you know? My coach Ollie was there, and he said to me just before I was getting in, all the years of hard work were for this. And that hit me really deep. I remember in the moment, I almost immediately, like, shed a tear.

4:05Cars forming into position, and the last car is in place. It will be time to look to the lights. I had to sort of calm myself down because, you know, I had a race to do.

4:18The new season is underway. And what an absolutely superb getaway for Arvid Lindblad, who's in the fourth. On that day in Australia, aged 18, Arvid Lindblad, the fourth youngest Grand Prix driver in history, showed he belongs on track with the very best. Every category I've done, I've always been pushed as early as I could. I've always been the youngest guy on the block, the new kid, the underdog, you could say. So I'm kind of used to being in that situation, which also helped me, you know, to not be intimidated. In his first race, Arvid dueled wheel to wheel with Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton.

4:58He finished in the points. On just his third F1 weekend, he outqualified Max Verstappen. In his words, Arvid Lindblad is getting stuck in.

5:14Hello everyone, Tom Clarkson here. I loved speaking to Arvid for this episode of F1 Beyond the Grid. The seed of his F1 dream was sown when he watched a Grand Prix on TV at the age of four and he asked his dad, Could I ever be there one day? How does this work? Is it possible? His family, his coach, racing driver Oliver Rowland and Red Bull's former motorsport advisor Helmut Marko helps him get there. And you can really tell how much Arvid's enjoying living his life's ambition.

5:50How are you? I'm good, I'm good. How are you? Yeah, I'm great, thank you. Enjoying the break. How has the break been for you? Yeah, it's been good. I've tried to obviously have a bit of downtime, a bit of switch off. It's been quite a busy start to the year. Obviously, it started quite early. We had three tests already starting in January. so it's been quite intense. I mean, the last time I went home before this break was like middle end of January so it's been nice just to sleep in my own bed again. But yeah, trying to have a bit of switch off but also at the same time staying fit, also working with the team, utilising the time to be on the sim, trying to maximise the learning from the first couple of events to be as prepared as possible for Miami.

6:29So a bit of training as well. How much have you upped the training since Formula 2? A bit more but not massively more. I think people maybe underestimate how physical the F2 cars are as well. It's different, you know, what you have to, the physical demands between F2 and F1. Because, so F2 as a car itself, I'd say it's actually more physical. Because you have, it's much more simple. So there's no power steering. The brakes much heavier. The pressure on the brake pedal. Yeah, you have to really slam it. But the biggest thing is just the power steering. Like there's none. So it's really heavy. When the high speed corners, yeah, it's a lot of effort.

7:04Sometimes to the point where you're more, you almost lose a bit of feeling. because it's like just brute force trying to make it turn. Can I ask you more about that? So let's imagine cops at Silverstone, very, very quick corner, whatever car you're in. Are you almost having to sort of wedge an elbow against the side of the cockpit in F2? Not so much because of the shape of the corner. But where would I say it was quite bad? Turn three Barcelona. Is that bad? I'd say more like Qatar. Was it 12, 13, 14? is you can't really wedge your arm in because you're always unwinding but it's kind of just you turn and i remember to a point where one lap in quali i knew the car could do it so i went in a bit quicker and i just got to a point where i just couldn't physically turn the wheel anymore so it's like you kind of go and you try to like almost wedge your arm in you almost have to sometimes move your your hand up to almost try to like force it down but yeah it's it's a bit nuts so with power steering in formula one how much easier is the yeah it's a different level i mean You just blow on the wheel and it turns.

8:06I mean, coming from F2, it's easy. I mean, F2, I mean, it was in quality for like one lap. It was really hard. Then in the race, it wasn't as extreme as that. And it was only like that for, you know, one or two tracks. But yeah, there were times when it was, especially also if the balance wasn't very nice, it was a bit on the nose, then you always tense a bit more. It was quite physically draining. But then obviously F1, as everyone knows, the neck is a big thing. Just because the cars are faster, there's more downforce. so the neck's the main thing but then also the races are longer so you need to be more just physically fit um so there's more cardio that comes with that so it's different training what's your cardio go-to is it are you running yeah running sort of what i like um i used to do quite a lot of swimming when i was younger um but then i kind of went off that a little bit um but yeah now i just i love to run um i think what's so nice about it is because we get to go to all these you know crazy amazing places in the world you can just take a pair of trainers with you and you can go you know you can just go almost sightseeing whilst you're running you know so i went when we were in japan i went running around tokyo i did like a 12k loop uh you know in the city and stuff and you you get to see it all it's it's quite cool they did the same in melbourne um i don't know i i enjoy running i think it's good for the mind but also just because of the nature of what we do it's um it's also quite fun on the road and your trainer your physio sam village he is a runner i've come across him in the past yeah i guess he was always gonna turn you into a runner even if you weren't right yeah i mean um i liked running but to be fair maybe you'd say that sam was kind of the transition for when i really started to get more into it um but yeah talk about sam he's uh he's a big runner himself uh i think he did the iron man like 10 years ago he's doing the marathon again uh here in london yeah he loves running he's um obviously he's quite busy now it's not easy but um there's a lot of times on uh saturday morning or, you know, on a Friday night, whenever we get a bit of time, he's trying to do laps around the track or laps around the city.

10:04Do you run the track? I do sometimes. I wouldn't say it's like a routine thing that I do every week. But there has been quite a few events, especially last year, where I wanted to sort of clear my head or, you know, I wanted to sometimes see the track. Because you do a track walk, but I don't know, I just kind of wanted to see it again where I go for a bit of a run on a Thursday night or something like that. This episode is sponsored by Indeed. There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes of this show, booking guests across time zones, tight turnaround edits, and constant time management. And when things get chaotic, you realise pretty quickly how important it is to have the right person on your team.

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13:31Hamilton's got a good launch on that corner about to go wheel to wheel are we about to go three wide Lindblad finds himself getting through Lindblad to third Hamilton to fourth and Hajar down to fifth unbelievable Harvard Lindblad well if anyone doesn't know his name they do now. Herbert Lindblad scores points as an 18-year-old on debut. It's Alan. Well done, mate. Points on your debut. Incredible stuff. A perfect weekend. Very proud of you, mate. Can we just do a very brief resume of what's been a phenomenal start for you in Formula One? Wind the clock back to the beginning of March. When I say Melbourne to you, what springs to mind the first thing that happens when i say get like a little bit butterflies already uh and goosebumps just thinking about it i mean it was an amazing weekend what was the i think just a lot of motion comes that's sort of the first thing that really comes to me just because obviously the the weekend went very well but also the the meaning behind the weekend you know it was my first race in formula one this is something i've been working towards and dreaming of my whole life um so just to have my debut was was very exciting i had my parents there with me as well which was really cool and then obviously the way the weekend went as well it was you know q3 um then you know finishing the points but even you know running p3 at one point on lap one it was just a pretty magical weekend um yeah i couldn't have even even dreamt of it tell us about that opening lap on the race as you say you were up to p3 just what was it like from inside the cockpit because you look so assured from the outside did it did it feel all calm inside yeah i don't know it was it was weird because i remember like i'd say from half an hour 45 minutes before the race all the way till sort of the lights going out like 45 minutes before i was pretty nervous as you would expect but almost as i got closer to the race i felt like i was getting more calm instead of more nervous and i remember very well you know sitting on the grid obviously the the grid in F1 is completely different to an F2.

15:38In F2 there's basically no grid procedure we never get out the cars but in F1 you know the grandstands are completely packed the music the vibe everything's so exciting so I remember sitting on the grid before the race just like really feeling the moment you know it was pretty surreal for me even just to be there so I was just kind of taking it all in and it was quite a pinch me moment just before the race sort of appreciating what was about to happen. And what did you do when you got out of the car because the first time in your career that you have left the car on the grid what did you do i think my trainer sam is sam he sort of came and picked me up because obviously i was uh a bit confused i mean it is quite new um so he kind of picked me up is that right okay when we discussed it before the race i can't so because it was new we discussed it before how it was going to work but uh he picked me up we went went to the garage uh went to the bathroom had a bit of a sit down bit of a chill out and but you don't obviously have long you're about five minutes before you have to go back for the national anthem i remember that quite well when i arrived at the national anthem obviously have your your name card for where to to stand and it said my name and obviously above it was the f1 logo it said you know formula one world championship and then arvid lindblad and even just seeing that you know i almost i got a bit emotional um just sort of appreciating what was about to happen and then i said yeah when i got back to the car i was really chill uh and then i was starting just to to get ready uh and my coach ollie was there uh and he said to me just before I was getting in all the years of hard work were for this and that hit me really deep um I mean I remember in the moment I almost immediately like shed a tear I had to sort of calm myself down because you know I had a race to do I don't know it really hit me that that sort of thing you know because it's I don't know maybe it's hard to to relate to maybe it's not I don't know but I mean I started this journey when I was five and I always believed I could be in Formula One and it's something I've always been working towards it's always been at the forefront of my mind and just the fact that it was coming true and it was really happening was incredibly exciting and then obviously yeah sort of I'm in the car the formation lap starts um just focused on obviously trying to manage the procedures it's all quite new with these new cars with the battery uh luckily I did that quite well I remember coming around the last corner just before coming into my grid box and feeling super calm like I could see all the people in the grandstands I could see that it was completely packed but I don't know why I almost got these flashbacks almost this vision of when I was six seven racing here in the UK a track called Hooton well it was just me and my dad because it's quite the shape of the last corner was quite similar and I don't know I just had got that that sort of picture in front of me and it really calmed me down in the moment like I knew it was my first Formula One race and how busy it was but it felt to me just like a karting race from 10 years ago and it was just me and my dad um so I remember I parked in the grid box feeling really cool lights start coming on I'm just sort of trying to focus on nailing my procedure which I did okay and then um yeah as soon as the lights went out I was just went for every gap I could find and just kind of got stuck in and was uh sort of slotting in between Lando and Lewis and before I knew it I was in P4 um Lando and Lewis can I repeat what you just said it was amazing yeah I mean it is pretty crazy to talk about I mean obviously they're both world champions um I think for me I mean obviously later on in the lap I passed Isaac and then it was me Isaac and Lewis you know really racing and racing side by side with Lewis is is pretty nuts I mean Lewis was a big reason for why I fell in love with the sport you know he was I wouldn't say an idol but he was the one I sort of looked up to you know it was just nuts you know to be able to race side by side with him someone that I'd watched on the tv for for years um you know winning all those world championships so it was uh it's pretty cool to think about even like to the point where i remember i was doing it but it only like hit me about 20 seconds later i was like oh my god i've just just like i'm in p3 i've just been racing with lewis like wow like this is this is insane my memories of that lap were that you were fearless and actually we talk about lewis it reminded me of lewis's opening lap in formula one melbourne 2007 you hadn't even been born at this point but you know he was fearless he went around the outside of fernando alonso his my current teammate at the time just seeing you go for those gaps and not be intimidated by the champions that were around you was was an extraordinary thing what were your expectations going into melbourne because at least it looked like winter testing had gone well i remember last day in bahrain you had the highest lap count of anybody i think you know did you feel ready i think so i mean it's always hard to know in the end before before it really happens you know you you do all the preparation do all the work you do everything you can you know so you you feel like you're ready but you can never say with confidence never know you know until you're in qualifying until you're in the race and it's really happening so i think on that side i felt as ready as i could be um because of that i really tried to go into the weekend which it's one of the stuff done all the first weekends without really any expectations and just focused on myself because you know these cars are so new we're all learning um that i didn't really want to start the season by comparing myself to others or whatnot because i know there's so many boxes i need to tick just in myself because there's so many new things that are happening so to answer your question expectations there weren't really any um and the the goals i had coming into the weekend were very focused on myself doing the basics well, nailing the procedures and just, yeah, getting, I mean, it was some, one of them also was, you know, being, I wouldn't say being fearless, but, you know, getting stuck in, you know, and I'd say on that side, I'm quite lucky because every category I've done, I've always been pushed as early as I could.

21:20I've always been the youngest guy in the block, you know, the, the new kid, the underdog, you could say. So I'm kind of used to being in that situation, which also helped me, you know, to not be intimidated. and you were able to keep your emotions under control as well yeah i don't know i feel like i'm not a particularly emotional person when i'm in the car i go into a bit of a different zone where i'm just very much focused on the driving and very in the moment and just reacting to what's happening to me um so yeah there wasn't really much emotion though you finish eighth britain's youngest ever point scorer in the history of formula one can we talk about celebrations did it did it go on all night or or what happened on Sunday night no I mean I I enjoyed the evening uh like I said I was there with my with my family uh with my coach with Sam um even my coach brought his family as well so it was we were all together it was really that was adds to you know making the weekend feel a bit more special it wasn't just you know it really felt like uh the whole team you know from from the beginning um because you know I've been working with with Ollie my coach since I was seven.

22:29Oh, we should just clarify, this is Oliver Rowland, isn't he? Yes. Reigning Formula E world champion. So he knows his eggs, right? He knows how to drive a car. He knows what he's doing, yeah. He's pretty handy behind the wheel. What does he actually do for you as your trainer, as you describe him? I mean, it's a bit of everything. It's sort of more of a mentor, a guide, a coach sort of role. I mean, he does a bit of everything. We talk about driving, we talk about mentality to go into the weekend, how to handle different situations even you know with the media you know how to approach that to make sure it takes away as little energy out of me as possible so it's it's a bit of everything you know it's he's a driver himself he's done it all so he's just giving me a bit of guidance a bit help um on sort of all the different aspects of being a driver i wonder if it's something similar to what oscar piastri has this year he's slightly changed the entourage around him he has his old Prema engineer Pedro Matos coming to all the races with him now just as another set of eyes and ears really you know look at the data with him or make any sort of recommendations if that's the right word is that what Oliver's doing for you yeah I would say um similar probably a bit more involved though I know Pedro from because I when I was in Prema and he's a really cool guy but obviously you know Oscar and Pedro have a great relationship and that's why he's able to help him but I've known Ollie since I was seven Ollie's a driver himself so I'd almost say our relationship and bond is probably a bit stronger just because he's known me for longer and he can really relate to me closer because he's done it all himself you know he's still driving now it wasn't that long ago when he was on the ladder to F1.

24:09Almost like a sibling? I would say he's like more like a second dad I don't know I'd say growing up he was like a second dad maybe now he's like more like an older brother I don't know but yeah it kind of goes between the two sometimes he's my mate and then he's my older brother and then uh when he's a bit more you know angry then he was like a second dad you know you said you didn't have expectations at any of the opening three races did your approach change going into china just a week after melbourne having had all that success having proved that you deserve to be there and that you could do it in formula one no no i wouldn't say so i would say I had a bit more confidence in myself just because I had you know I'd showed what I could do um maybe I had a little bit more belief but honestly on an approach point of view on a from mentality side I approached it the same I knew China was going to be a really difficult challenge it was a new track for me it's my first weekend so it was going to be uh a tall order to to be able to perform and do things right so no i wouldn't say things really were any different being a sprint weekend though it kind of the format is almost more like formula 2 isn't it it is closer to yeah i mean i was talking about it with with ollie and sam before the race that it's uh yeah a bit like what i'm used to from the last couple years you know because f2 and f3 are the same uh they're very similar so um yeah that that helped out a little bit you could say fast forward to two weeks later we're now in japan again the approach is the same right yep but what about suzuka can i just ask you about the track um how many times have you played it on the f1 game you know what was it like to drive such an iconic circuit it was it was amazing it was probably the race i was most looking forward to this year it was my first time there obviously the junior series don't get to go um yeah and it was it was unbelievable i mean i think there's not that many tracks now that are such high speed so punishing if you make a mistake and because of both of those parts something that I almost felt was that because everything's happening so quickly and you're so in the zone you can't think everything's almost subconscious and it's rare that you do think but there are you know laps that are a bit more that aren't quite as intense um but because it was so subconscious and just so much on feeling so pure that it almost reminded me of my early karting days you know when you're just driving you're not thinking you're just sending it you know you're just having fun you're just really just you and the kart and just going um so that for me was was really enjoyable it was almost uh taking me back to the to the early days so that for me was the thing i almost enjoyed the most about the track but then obviously going into the you know the circuit itself it's amazing it's such high speed you need a lot of commitment and it's such a iconic circuit as well um so it's just really enjoyable to drive did i read that you're you were a center fan you are a center fan Ayrton Senna um not really okay um where did i read that i would say i have a massive respect for Ayrton and you know obviously what he's done in the sport is unbelievable the only reason why i say i wouldn't say i'm a fan or maybe i don't idolize airton it's just because his time was so much before mine and i don't feel like i really know that much about him um i mean obviously there's there's some stories and there's stuff but i mean growing up seeing lewis you know i could i was watching him on the tv i could see everything i could watch his onboards you know i could watch his overtakes all that sort of stuff whereas with and the sort of footage available, the stories available are so much smaller that for me it was just, I couldn't get enough of a grasp, you know, and an understanding of him.

27:54So that was why. The only reason I ask about him is I find whenever I'm at Suzuka, it's the one place that I feel the bond between Senna and now is strongest because the track hasn't changed. And there is some amazing footage on YouTube of Senna driving, I think it's an NSX, in his civvies. You watch him stabbing at the throttle and heel and towing, which I guess you haven't had to do in your career. But it's a great bit of footage. But the final thing on Suzuka is that quality lap. Everyone in the team said it was an absolute, it was a giant of a lap. And it put Max Verstappen out. That's the one I'm referring to.

28:36It put Max Verstappen out in Q2. How good was the lap? But what did it feel like to take that scalp, if that's the right expression? Yeah, it was pretty nuts. It was cool. I mean, going almost a bit sort of back, it wasn't an easy weekend. FP1 went okay, but then I missed all of FP2 with an issue. I'd missed a good chunk of FP3. So I was coming into Quali a little bit lost and not really sure what to expect. Like I said before, Suzuka is such a high-speed track, So you need a lot of commitment, which means you need confidence. You need laps to build that confidence. And coming there as a rookie, that was kind of the one thing I needed.

29:16Because if you're more experienced and you've done it a lot of times, maybe if you miss a few laps on the weekend, you can kind of figure it out. But I mean, it was my first time there. And having such an interrupted week leading up to quali was not easy. So I really just tried to make the best of the situation and learn during, especially Q1. the team did a really good job to give me a car that I had confidence in that I could build with and then I know I remember coming in after that first run of Q2 looking on the timesheet seeing I was about four tenths off the cutoff and I thought to myself it's going to be a bit difficult to get through here I'm going to need to I don't really know if it's on the cards so I told myself right I'm just gonna I've got nothing to lose this potentially it's probably going to be my last lap of you know this qualifying the last lap on low fuel I'm just gonna send it and just go have some fun you know and just leave everything on the track and just have no regrets um because that was something I was a little bit sad about from Melbourne and China even though Melbourne went so well you know with Q3 because of you know we had a few issues during the the qualifying and all this kind of stuff and same in China with the the yellow flag coming out I didn't feel like I got that one lap where I could just switch off my brain and just go you know and just not really think and just leave everything out there so you know i told myself it's probably going to be my last last chance you know this is my lap to do that that was the the approach i went in with and i just i just sent it and hoped for the best and it was um it was pretty cool i mean it uh it was a pretty good lap i didn't really i didn't make any mistakes i sort of hooked up well and um where did you find that four tenths it was a bit everywhere right i mean there was a good chunk in sector one it's probably two tenths in sector one um but then you know there was a bit in in the hairpin in 11 um a bit more in 13 14 just because the committed a bit more in 13 but then still got the line nice for 14 uh which is not easy there because you know it's a double apex the tires overheats all this kind of stuff just got that spot on i was really efficient as well with the approach i had so i had lots of energy for the straight so i gained a little bit more on the straight even though i was quicker in the corner as well i mean i remember coming into the last chicane and i think at this point i was half a second up on the dash because i was four tenths off the cutoff at the time but obviously that improved so i'm like half second i think five and a half tenths up on the dash i remember even screamed in the helmet because i was just like you know come on like don't mess it up kind of thing that was all us into the last chicane i was like just don't mess it up just nail it but then yeah i don't know i just broke late got the curb nicely and uh delta went up to like six and a half tenths and then i crossed the line i remember i think the first thing I opened the radio with was like, mate, come on, that's got to be enough.

31:51Like, please tell me that's enough, you know? And yeah, like 20 seconds later, I was like, you know, congratulations, you're in Q3. And it's just like, wow. That's got to be a good one. I thought it was a good one. I'll give you both a two. Sorry. We'll see where to go. One more thought. He does it! Okay, that's done. Right, that's done. The rookie driver, 18 years of age, Arvid Lindblad knocks out the four-time champ an almighty shock at a circuit Verstappen has made his own You're such an instinctive driver we've learnt that about you already what did Max say? did he come up to you afterwards or any conversation with him?

32:34No we haven't really spoken about it I mean obviously for him it was not a particularly nice day he hasn't had the most fun so far this year but I mean for me to be honest I don't really care who it is that I you know knock out or beat in the end I was just so happy to be in Q3 after all the difficulties that I'd had so far that weekend to really just pull it together with my guys you know my side of the garage it was just a very special moment um so yeah it doesn't really matter the person it was just being able to start in the top 10. You know you said the team gave you a really good car I guess every racing driver wants a neutral car but what what is your preferred car i mean do you like a car that's right on the nose or just what what is a really good car that you really feel you can get a hold of and do your thing i don't know i would say i'm probably more on the oversteer than the understeer side um i don't really like understeer i just think it's slow in the end i mean we need to go around the corner as fast as possible so if the car turns quicker you go around the corner a bit quicker so I mean obviously there's to a point where then you're limited by the rear but if you can just turn quicker then you go quicker so um I don't know I would say I like a car that is relatively neutral um but if I had to choose one I'd say a bit more on the nose than uh than on the understair side something Alan Permain said recently was that you can be a bit harsh on yourself can you see that character trait in you are you a perfectionist maybe a little bit I like to do things properly um but at the same time i don't know i try to get the balance right but in the end you don't learn anything by not being honest to yourself and you know accepting when you haven't done things well and when things can be done better so i try to get the balance right and cut myself some flack when it's needed but in the end i think the point i am in my career at the moment there's a lot to learn um and there's a lot i can improve on and that's kind of what I'm focused on and that's where I'm looking.

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36:59you say there's a lot to improve on something colton hurter said on this podcast um last week was that really when by the time a driver's sort of 16 17 assuming he's been karting from a young age which he had and and you have he says he doesn't really think the speed gets any faster by the time you're 16, 17. You become a more intelligent racing driver in terms of how you read a race, but the speed doesn't improve. Do you agree with him? Not really. You think there's more speed to come? Yeah. I think you can always improve. I think, obviously... I think you were saying you can improve, but just the raw speed.

37:40Yeah, I don't know. I mean, obviously it's hard to compare sports, but in tennis you have a coach no matter what. even Djokovic when he's 37 or 36 is getting showed how to improve his forehand I would say in in racing it's the same I think there's in the end we drive to the limit which which is our feeling and if you can improve your feeling then you go faster um so something I'm trying to do to improve I mean I think the sims are really good because they're not actually perfect you know in the sim you don't feel what you feel in the real car which means your stimulus for where you feel what's going on is different to the real car which means if you can improve that then you have more feeling in the car i think it's really good when you drive different cars because then you start to get different feelings if you were to drive a rally car you you start to get a very good feeling for the car in a different way uh if you drive a road car all these kind of things these are kind of things that i'm looking to potentially explore with time in terms of feeling the sim it's all through the hands right whereas in the real car it's more through your bum and your feet well all of it right there's mostly a bum yeah okay your gut so you feel it through your bum um but then your your brain is like it holds you back a little bit it's like you have a horse and you're holding the reins and every session you kind of release a little bit and then it's sort of for example in japan in qualifying you're always releasing a little bit but it was only that last lap of q2 where i just let go of the reins and sometimes the horse is just gonna go and it's like can you hold on to it and that's kind of you know when you just send it i don't even know how how we got into this to be honest but i mean um yeah i don't know what about you and your competitiveness are you competitive in everything that you do not just at the racetrack um yeah i'd say so yeah i mean even in school uh i mean school is very important um in my family.

39:39I come from Indian background on my mum's side, which is very known for the academics being important. Was mum at Cambridge? Mum was at Cambridge. My uncle was also at Cambridge. My mum's cousin was also at Cambridge. So I've come from quite an academic background. I think my mum went to Trinity. I think it was Trinity. Anyway. Oh, Arvid, you haven't gone to Cambridge. I know. Unbelievable. My mum still gives me flack for that. well I said I mean talking about mom I think for her when I told her at like 13 or maybe earlier 11 you'd have to talk to her to know but I think it was around 11 12 I told her mom I'm uh I'm not gonna go to uni she was like what do you mean what are you on about it's like mom I'm I'm gonna be be a Formula One driver I'm not I'm not going to uni she's like well let's see kind of thing you know I was like no no mom I'm I'm gonna be in Formula One so don't don't get your hopes up on uni we'll we'll find a way around the school but that's plan b but i don't really see that as and and what did mom say to you after after melbourne did she say okay i get it now no i think that was the moment where she got it i think for her that that conversation was a bit of uh it sent a bit of shivers down there she was very confused she couldn't really i think that was where she understood how driven i was and this was what i was going to do which i i knew since I was five I knew since I was five this is what I was going to do but um that for her was when she realized that I think she kind of appreciated the weight of it so then in from that moment she's been she's been on board and she's known this is what I'm working towards so and in Melbourne she was she was just happy she just gave me a hug and just said well done it was amazing you know and I think my parents have always been very supportive on that side because it's always been as I've said you know so far it's been my goal my dream you know it's been my drive that's got me here and my parents have been you know I'm here because of them you know because of the how hard they worked in their life to be able to have the opportunities to do this um and their help through my sort of journey but they've always just supported me um and they've never really been any more than you know my dad's not one to really shout to me is what I'm trying to get at you know he was the one who was always just there for me even if things didn't go well because he knew that I was already annoyed at myself.

41:55So in all these kind of situations, my parents have always just been very supportive, very loving, which has always been nice. So mum's side of the family, not motorsport fans. Is that fair to say? So that influence came from the paternal side, from dad, your dad, Stefan. Yeah, yeah. So it actually more comes from my paternal grandfather, farfar as I call him, Swedish, which in Swedish far is dad's dad. yeah I mean Farfar would he loves motorsport he'd watch anything with wheels and an engine I mean I remember um when I was maybe like six six or seven my farmer Farfar they can't um they don't have much money to be honest so they can't afford cable tv so my dad has to now he pays he pays for them to have it you know but I mean 15 years ago and it wasn't 15 anyway 12 years ago they didn't have it um so i remember coming down my mom came down actually and she told me afterwards she came down to get some water like three or four o 'clock in the morning my granddad was there scrolling through all the motorsport channels watching them all because he was just he loves it he could he just wanted to watch everything um so that's sort of where the passion started so when uh he took my dad they did for about a year they did motocross they had to stop quite early but he did motocross for about a year so that sort of passion passed down to my dad when i was three my dad got me a motocross bike uh so i started with motocross uh it didn't last very long only a couple months i think it was a little bit too much for my mom to see a little little kid that's you know learning to walk on a motocross bike just to be clear we're not talking mini motor we're talking off-road right yeah like in the mud you know like i wasn't quite going on jumps because three but i mean like the the traditional step would be to go uh like supercross you know that they do in the in the in the states did you enjoy the freedom that you get on a bike okay yeah i don't really remember it that well to be honest i do you get on a bike now no i haven't i haven't really been on uh on a bike since we're actually talking today about potentially doing some some stuff on it but um no i haven't really been been on one since i don't know i i enjoyed it but it wasn't that instant love you know i enjoyed it like any person does when they go to an amusement park you know but it wasn't like when i went karting for the first time i didn't want to leave and i was always actually dragged out and then immediately when we got when i was in the cars asking when can we go again when we can go again you know when i went karting for the first time i loved it so that really stuck a lot more um and that was a sand down in the uk is that right yeah i did a lot in sand down i think i went karting the first time somewhere else it wasn't really karting it was like basically like there's a toy bumper cars thing that but that was my first time i kind of sat in like a moving vehicle like that but then I went to Sandown quite a few times because my dad knew that I had this sort of passion and I enjoyed it but he you know obviously it's expensive so he was just like right let's just do it for a couple months to see if you actually enjoy it and you're actually serious so for about good four months went to Sandown Park in Isha a lot and then my dad bought me my first go-kart when I was five a few months later we went a lot to Rye House where Lewis started.

45:03We went to Bayford Meadows. Those are sort of two tracks I started at. But then where things really took off was when I was seven, we were moving house and the house we were moving to wasn't quite ready yet. So we went to live with my grandparents for the summer and they live in Bolton near Manchester. And about 45 minutes away from there was a car track called Hooton Park, which is very small. There's not nothing really nice about it to be honest but that was where me and my dad would go every other day that summer and I was driving all the time and absolutely loved it and that was where things really took off uh and I remember very well my grandparents would come you know during the days they'd bring Indian food um you know I remember having my nani's Rajmar and Chaparthi's you know out the back of the car um but that was sort of the summer that really changed everything and that was the moment when you thought i want to get to formula one no i'd say that happened already when i was already yeah that's extraordinary clarity of thought isn't it for me the moment where the seed sort of was sown was when i was four my dad was sitting on the sofa at home and he had the f1 on and i came and sat next to him and i was watching the cars and i was in awe you know i was sitting there for a couple minutes just looking at all these cars go past this would have been what 2011 so you know i've got seb jensen lewis i'm watching this race and i'm just like wow this is so cool this is crazy and i remember asking my dad like could i ever be there one day like how does this work like is it possible you know and i started badgering him with these questions and that was where i was really like this is nuts i want i want to do it and then a few a year later we went to silverstone it was what 2013 grand prix so it must have been end of 11 or maybe beginning of 2012 but yeah a year later went 2013 british grand prix and um that was the moment where i really knew sort of the sofa was when the seed sort of came but then when i went to the f1 race the first time i knew i wanted to to do it and i wanted to be in formula one and did that change your attitude to how you went karting yes but i would say that it was so early on that it didn't really feel like it changed it was kind of just like that was it was still it kind of in the beginning you know it wasn't like it was halfway through so then all of a sudden I was like right now I'm gonna start you know it was really so early on that I don't really remember from before this moment so I all I remember is every time I went to the kart track I had the goal of getting to Formula One it was never a hobby for me it was always you know maybe my dad will say it was but for me it was never a hobby every time I went to the track I was having fun but I was also thinking how can we better how can I learn how can I improve um and a lot of that also did come from my dad it's a big part thanks to him that in the beginning he was never focused on the equipment you know a lot of you know kids and their parents they were trying to get the best engines the best chassis the best team and I had quite lousy equipment but my dad spent the money on driver coaches all the time I'd have driver coaches you know work on how can I get better uh I do remember having a conversation with him at one point you know I was like dad you know this is so difficult running around in like p10 you know i've got no power like i'm not having fun here you know why why can't you just give me a better engine and he's like no no you can when you're ready you'll get a better engine but you're not ready yet you know you've still got a lot you can improve on so it was always about driver coaches um and that's when oliver roland came into your life that leads into ollie so i was driving for a team called zip uh which had a relationship with rsf which uh ollie was a part of racing steps foundation and my dad asked the team he was just like you know if any of the drivers have a weekend off and they want a bit of extra pocket money you know i mean the world to us if they could come and just do a day with arvid and ollie was sort of scrambling for anything he could get so he was you know immediately up for it and i remember meeting ollie when i was seven and every six months we do a test day um and he'd help out okay how would he help out would he be telling you where to break would he be yeah helping with setup that kind of thing no it was driving not so much a set up um it was yeah really it was everything on driving it was talking about lines it was you know brake here you need to turn this way uh you need to feel the car in this way and it was really just like it was obviously very basic but it was really just it was all about driving because he was so good at the driving he you know he really helped me i loved work with ollie so every time he could come you know i'd ask for it and we had a very close relationship because of that so i remember at the end of 2016 at the end of my first year we're in a bit of a difficult um first year of like racing properly it's like national british championship and stuff it was a bit difficult with the teams um because we'd moved team something called a place called aim that was going really well but then the boss um he wanted to stop with the team we didn't really know where to go because there was another team called fusion um we didn't really want to go there because it was a big team and my dad wanted me to be in a small team he didn't mind if it was worse but he wanted me to be in a small team so i get more attention that helps me to learn and improve so we didn't really know where to go and so my dad asked ollie to come to a race so ollie came in the other maybe january 2017 on the first races and he was saying right i'm gonna start a team with arvid um you know this this isn't working let's you know i think what he told me actually was that plan a was you go to fusion plan b was you stay in zip or plan c is i could start a cutting team with with arvid and my dad immediately was like yeah let's do that let's start a team plan c yeah yeah, yeah, Flansilla, start a team, that sounds great, so, and I think Oli kind of said that more out of a, yeah, you know, maybe we could do this, I don't think he'd really thought it through, but then it was happening before we know, we brought, we had a Sprinter van, we had a little pop-up tent, and it was me, Oli, my mechanic, Alex, going all around the UK, and we were learning stuff together, I mean, for Oli, he was racing F2 at the time, which is pretty nuts, you know, he was racing with Charles that year 2017 and um yeah we're going all over the UK and that was where things really took off I finished second that year to Taylor Barnard who's now racing in Formula E then the year after I won the British Championship and yeah then I went to race in Europe at 11 and obviously Ollie couldn't continue the team in Europe but we'd stay very much in contact at the end of every day you know I'd send him a voice note we'd have a call about how things were going he'd come to a few of the races in europe then it was similar in f4 he came to a few of the races a few of the tests and then it was beginning of f3 so between f4 and f3 where he really stepped up because it's very rare for people to do the step from f4 to f3 because it's such a big step uh just to put it in lap time terms between f4 and f3 is the same as f3 and f1 it's about 13 seconds 14 seconds so almost no one does that step and the people that do that step almost none of them have been able to perform the first year and it was what and we know what happened well this was what you win your first race well this is what you know it was this was you know helmet we had the the vision and this was you know what we were doing um so we had to put a lot of effort in i remember i was pretty nervous at the start of that year and i needed all the help i can get so ollie became a lot more involved and he started coming to a lot of the races i think he came to six or seven of the races in that year and yeah it went pretty well i won my first race in Bahrain uh a few rounds later I won the feature race in Barcelona and then um I had the double win in Silverstone and yeah first time that had happened yeah yeah it was uh it was pretty nuts I mean it was a very special year I think I broke a few records and I think that was yeah the year that I think changed things because yes last year in F2 was good but there was a lot of ups and downs but i would say the year in f3 really helped me to be here change things from a red bull perspective in terms of how they looked at you is that what you mean i think i mean i always had a very close relationship with helmet and i think there was always the the vision that we had together um but i would say maybe it helped consolidate things okay and gave me maybe a bit more of a buffer when things were a bit more difficult enough to we've talked about some of the key people you know dad was clearly one oliver roland was clearly one can we talk a little bit about helmet he can be quite harsh on young drivers how was your relationship with him he can be and there is a lot of stories obviously about helmet but my relationship with helmet was was very special and a lot of these stories i can't really relate to we met for the first time in uh in portomal in when i was 13 and i remember i i was just very excited to meet you know the guy that had brought max to f1 that brought sebastian you know all these amazing guys that had gone on to do great things um and i was obviously very proud um that he'd wanted to give me that same opportunity but yeah our relationship was very good we were very honest with one another um you know we said things how it was and that helped me to learn and to improve there was never never any rubbish like i said it was always very honest and it was a lot thanks to his guidance and expertise also thanks to rocky as well um that was able to come through the ranks so quickly to be here today and rocky as in sebastian vettel's ex-race engineer yes so i think it's guillem roccolan that's uh is his name yeah uh but everyone calls him rocky now uh he joined the program in 2022 i joined end of 2020 but i was in casting at the time so i wasn't that heavily really involved in the program but then when i as soon as i stepped up to cars he was obviously there so they were both a big thanks to to why i've been able to come through the ranks so quickly and yeah i don't know like i said with helmet we we always got along very well we we said things how it was um and he helped me to learn and there's a lot of stories about him being difficult and you know not the easiest to work with but for me he was always amazing and um he's a big thanks to why i'm here today uh he always had my back and he always believed in me and even when things were going difficult last year he was the one who believed in me most and has helped for me to have this opportunity this year so i'll always be grateful to him for that even though helmet's not traveling this year have you stayed in touch i imagine he's very proud with of you and how it's starting yeah we we stay in touch we we called after after australia and he's still following along he's he's trying to stay a bit more sort of in the shadows and you know a bit a bit more away from it but uh he still knows everything that's happening and i'm sure that he'll be at a race this year yeah obviously i'm sad that he's no longer in the paddock um because we did get along really well but i think the way i try to look at it is that it's i think it's really impressive that someone of his age was going to 24 races a year showing his passion dedication love for the sport at his age i'm trying to imagine what he said to you after melbourne ah avid not bad or something like that i can imagine him saying something like that not bad well done he was like uh so avid everyone uh in in red bull is now a limblad fan that was that was what his words were so um yeah that was that was pretty cool ovid i think after this chat a lot of people listening to this will be linblad fans as well thank you so much for your time it's been great to get to know you a little bit final one for me really is the season kick starts in miami this coming weekend but what does success look like for you over the remainder of 26 what are your goals honestly even though the first few races have gone well i'm still going to try to keep with that same mentality of just focusing on myself and doing as best as I can.

56:48So I wouldn't say I've got too many outcome goals. I mean, obviously I, you know, I want to do well. Me and Liam have been, you know, fighting hard the first couple of races. So I want to, you know, continue to be right up there with him and, you know, obviously try to beat him. But in the end, that is an outcome thing, you know, that's an output. So that's what I'd like to achieve. But to make that happen, I need to focus on myself and make sure I'm doing everything right on my side or the procedures all that sort of stuff so that's where i'm going to put the effort um for especially these next few races but i think for the rest of the year and then we'll see what happens very good luck with it all thank you very much cheers thank you for your time

57:36what an incredible conversation i had to keep reminding myself that avid is only 18 years old because he's already so articulate and confident. His story so far is both unique and inspiring. But let's remember, this is only the beginning of the beginning for him. Arvid, thank you very much for your time and good luck this coming weekend in Miami and for the remainder of the season. And as you said, keep focusing on yourself and I'm sure everything will pan out just fine. Now on the subject of Miami, Jolion Palmer, James Hinchcliffe and I I look forward to the race on this week's episode of F1 Nation.

58:14That's out now. Thanks very much for listening. And I will, of course, be back next week with another great guest from the world of Formula 1. F1 Beyond the Grid is produced by Formula 1 and Audioboom Studios. Until next time, keep it flat out.