Can a British 18-year-old with no drivers licence win Silverstone? - Arvid Lindblad Exclusive

0:02This is a global production. All the years of hard work were for this. So much of your childhood is lost to ultimately a profession. There is a lot of my life that isn't normal. Have you passed your driving test? No. Oh my god. I try to also feel like just a normal 18 year old kid. How do you think it's going to feel this weekend? I don't think it's fully sunken in. I want to do better and there is things I can do better.

0:34Up to Speed

0:39It's Will It's David Welcome to Up to Speed It's British Grand Prix week It's getting closer mate It's awesome, I love it, I camp I mean, well, it's posh camping, I'm in a motorhome But I did camp at Silverstone in a tent 1990 Opel Lotus support race to the Grand Prix and it was a hot weekend. There's nothing worse than waking up in a tent. In a hot tent. Yeah, 5.30 in the morning. As you're off to go and compete. Yeah, exactly. So anyway, I'm in a nice air-conditioned motorhome. But I'll be there with some buddies that are in the one end of the motorhome. I'll be there with my son, who's not racing this weekend.

1:16So it really feels to me, it's more than a Grand Prix. It's a social event. It's a family event. It's a celebration of British engineering and British fandom and barbecues and undercooked sausages. I always loved Thursday, Friday at the British Grand Prix because, as you say, it's such a family event, but it's a family event for the teams because what are we looking at? 90 % of the teams are based in the UK now and every team has at least one part of their operation that has a UK base. And so everybody's able to bring their family to the track. Filling the ground stands. So it's people that you know and you talk to and you see around the world and suddenly they're there with their kids or with their mum and dad.

2:06And it's just like there's something really mega about that. So what we should maybe explain to any new listeners, there is a club called the British Racing Drivers Club. Yes. And that club owns Silverstone. So Silverstone is a privately owned facility, which was a gift from the founding fathers when they bought the airfield and they decided that this will be operated by the British Racing Drivers Club. There's only 800 or so members of the club. The club will never sell the facility because it was given to us and we are custodians handing over to the next generation. And there's that constant sort of transition of, you know, of course, the older ones sadly have their full life.

2:50And then we've got the young guys who earn the right to be a member of the British Racing Drivers Club. And all of this happens. And as I say, many of the other Grand Prix's around the world are government funded and supported. Basically, the fans pay to go to the Grand Prix. That generates the income to pay Formula One for the rights to host a Grand Prix. and what's left over gets reinvested in the track, building new pit complexes, new campsites, new whatever it happens to be. Yes, there are a team of people called the Silverstone Management Team under Stuart Pringle who are paid full-time to operate the professional business that is Silverstone.

3:32But beyond that, no money goes out of Silverstone. It all gets reinvested. We've built an international car track. And it's a young driver's careers as well. Yeah, young drivers are supported by that. But we've now got an international kart track, which was completed earlier this year, which will host world championships in the future. So Silverstone is now a destination that whether you're karting, whether you want to go to the museum and see the innovation side of things, whether you're there for track days, whether you're there for Formula One, whether it's sports cars, motorbikes, it all happens there.

4:03And as I say, the British Racing Drivers Club own it. British Grand Prix debut what did it feel like for you was it all about pressure or was it suddenly sort of the realisation of a lifetime's dream of I'm going to race in Formula 1 at home yeah it felt like I was at home because I'd been going to Silverstone since I was 7, 8 years old not to Grand Prix's but to karting races I used to have long circuit karting there and then when I started in cars in 1989 testing in Silverstone I remember being in Formula Ford which was the entry level cars that you raced at that time, 110 horsepower and groove tires, going down hangar straight, you took out your favourite book and you read a couple of chapters.

4:45Because you were so... And I remember driving on an open test day and a Formula 3000 car came past me, which is like a Formula 2 car today, and it disappeared. And I thought, how can you ever drive a car that fast? Yeah. Because I was only used to what I was used to. And of course, you adapt as you move up through. But yeah, I had so many great memories as a kid, learning how to drive a road car when I was a teenager around the perimeter road, camping there, barbecues. To then be there as a Grand Prix driver, there was familiarity to the environment. The only thing that was different was a sea of Union Jacks as you drove around the circuit.

5:26And it's the only Grand Prix track I've ever heard the crowd above the noise of a race car. and that was down at Stowe Corner. I overtook Jean Alessi and his Ferrari when I was in the Williams Formula One car. They'd made Stowe, instead of a fast right-hander, they made it a kind of 90 right. It was as a reaction to, you know, the Senna and Ratzenberger fatalities of 94. And as I went down the inside and was going down to second gear, I heard the crowd roar. And at first I thought they had a problem with the car because it was a noise I'd never heard before. But it was because they were excited that a British driver had taken the lead.

6:02And they're knowledgeable, they're passionate. I remember that same crowd noise when Lewis Hamilton took the lead of a GP2 race back in 06. And it was, you know, these were 26 V8s. They were noisy. And the crowd, louder than all of that, as Lewis took the lead and announced himself to his home crowd as somebody to watch for the future. They are hugely passionate, hugely loyal, hugely knowledgeable. and this weekend they will see another British driver make his debut. That man is Arvid Lindblad, somebody who is making waves in Formula 1, impressing everybody, and I got to sit down and have a chat with him.

6:43Arvid, welcome to Up to Speed. Thank you. Thank you for having me. How are you, man? I'm good. Good. You? Yeah, very well. Very well. It's British Grand Prix week. Let's start with that, of course. How pumped are you for your first ever home Grand Prix? I'm very, very excited. It should be a lot of fun. I've been very fortunate to have some very special moments the past few years when I've gone there. And yeah, I even remember very well when I was five and I went to Silverstone for the first time to watch my first F1 race in 2013. So yeah, to be going there 13 years later as a Formula One driver will be pretty nuts.

7:23That's wild. What do you remember about that? I remember being in Maggots and Beckets in the grandstand and just looking at the cars going through and just thinking it was so fast. Yeah. And just being sort of mesmerized and asking my dad, like, wow, is it really possible like one day to drive one of those cars? Because this was really when I was sort of getting into it and I was just badgering him, you know, like, is it possible? Could I be there one day? When I was really learning about sort of my passion for it. So, yeah, to be now going as a driver is pretty cool. And coming up through the ranks, you'd have got to drive at Silverstone a lot, even before F3 and F2, I'd imagine.

8:02Or did you not? No. No, F3 was my first time. Really? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I did the BRDC award, which was actually my first time. But then my first time racing was in F3 because I didn't do British F4 or Freca or anything. So you just found a natural affinity with the circuit straight away because F3, it was like… Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I remember it was weird. when i drove it for the first time i guess it's because um because i'm british every time i'd go in the f1 game as a kid i'd always do silverstone but i remember just when i drove it the first time it was my first laps but it felt like i'd already done a thousand oh it was such a weird feeling yeah um so even now i haven't actually driven there that much i've raced there in f3 and f2 um yeah two two weekends but i feel like i know the place quite well so yeah and you did back-to-back wins in f3 yeah what was it about the circuit that just kind of spoke to you allowed you to pull out those kind of results because it's not it's not usual for and for those those listening who maybe aren't so much into f3 or f2 when you have you have a feature and a sprint over the weekend to win both is is incredibly rare yeah yeah and yeah but obviously because of the nature of the reverse grid um it's quite difficult i don't know um quality was a bit of a mess so i started a bit bit further back so i was actually at the front of the sprint and that was a bit more of a easier race um and then the feature was quite nuts with all the with the weather it rained and then i stayed on slicks and it ended up working out um i enjoy the track it's it's very very cool uh very high speed um obviously very iconic um i don't know i just enjoy it a lot it's very special to drive how do you think it's going to feel this weekend when you roll out of pit lane for the first time in an f1 car on british grand prix weekend and you drive down through maggots and becketts and you go past that grandstand that you sat in as a five-year-old watching the cars go by and had this dream that one day it would be you and that realization that it is you yeah um i'm not really sure it will be pretty it'll be pretty surreal um yeah it'll be very special um it's come at such a young age for you um so young in fact that when you started you hadn't passed your driving test is that right yeah have you passed your driving test no oh my god are you having lessons no i haven't actually had a lesson yet i did my theory um a couple months ago how did that go don't tell me you failed yeah by one no you did not yeah no you did not yeah it was quite bad yeah i was quite disappointed especially because i'd started revising only at like 8 p.m the day before so i did like three or four hours of revision which i thought was enough because i spoke to my mate and he was just like yeah i just turned up that's all right i'll do a bit revision i'll be fine and i missed by one i was like rage bait because the questions aren't you know what's a yellow flag what's a yellow and red striped flag it's you know uh what what does this signpost mean and what do you do in this scenario it's all a bit different they also try to trick you a little bit and some of it's not very like yeah you always try to pick like the safest answer because normally that's the best guess but there are sometimes two that seem pretty logical um i don't know yeah i think yeah i have to go again it's okay it's only it's only the theory Because I was going to ask, you know, OK, you're not having lessons, but will you have lessons?

11:45And if you do, how do you think they're going to go? Because you've got to have a driving instructor trying to instruct a Formula One driver on how to drive. I mean I don't know maybe I'm very naive um but my sort of plan was to have a lesson um to sort of learn about all the um I don't know maybe silly is not the right word but you know the things that the instructors are very hot on you know checking your mirrors multiple times your 10 and 2 on the hands like all those sort of basic stuff that aren't really actually proper driving um to make sure I'm on top of all of that um so I don't get caught off guard and then I was going to go to the tasks in the end i've driven still quite a lot on the road because i'm allowed to with my mom yeah um so i'm very comfortable on the road i can park well and all that sort of stuff um so it would be more just to learn about the the small things it's all the little things like three point turns yeah reverse parking those are the things that catch everyone i think you'll be you'll be pretty good on the uh emergency stop yeah the reaction time you should be you should be pretty good on that hopefully yeah don't stall it do you still have to pass the test on a manual car in the uk you should um you don't have to you can do an automatic test but then you can't um you can only drive automatic so if you want to get a higher car um you can only get an automatic which obviously more expensive so it's definitely better to do it on a manual than you just got more cars available and will you do it here or in portugal because you live in portugal uh no i want to do it here you want to do it do it in the uk i love that i love that that not only that you failed your theory by the way the best of us fail our theory tests just to let everybody know um but that that you're not yet having actual driving lessons and here you are as a as a formula one driver how's how does it feel to be sitting here as an f1 driver everything you wanted since you were five years old at that british grand prix coming coming true it's um it's pretty nuts and you know to be honest um sometimes i still have to pinch myself i don't think it's fully sunken in um i don't know i'm i'm very much someone that sort of just goes with the flow and just sort of takes it all in my stride um but it is very cool um and there is a part of me that still is like this is f1 like this is pretty pretty nuts you know like the amount of races the amount of times i was on the sofa at home watching it or when i was at the kart track uh in the in the uk and you know my race would finish or just before my race I'd have you know my phone propped up seeing what would be happening um to now actually be in it myself um is is very cool so yeah I've been I've been enjoying it a lot um it's been really fun so far this year but um I wouldn't say it's still fully sunken in what's the biggest kind of pinch me moment that you've had so far Melbourne was was very um emotional in some ways um both my parents were there um which is actually quite rare for me um I guess when I was a proper teenager uh a few years ago I actually didn't like my parents to come so much it was very often me and my trainer Sam and then last year I wanted my dad a little bit more there um but Melbourne's been the first race in a long time that I had both of them um and i just remember very well uh i went to to the national anthem and i saw my my name card with the f1 you know logo and it already got a little bit um that already hit me um and then i just remember walking back to to my car um obviously i had a great result i think i was starting like eighth or something um and my coach was there and i was getting ready and he said to me all the years of harder work were for this and um that really really hit me and i immediately almost you know shed a tear i had to basically control myself because the race was about to start um but i'd say the the emotion i got in that moment and the really the appreciation of you know what was happening um yes was was pretty was quite something silverstone's obviously going to be a big one what's the other track that you're most looking forward to what was the one that you enjoyed the most when you were playing the f1 game i enjoyed the most silverstone the ones i was looking forward to this year were suzuka was one of them um and then the other one honestly i'm looking forward to brazil yeah i just know what i had something that was gonna say yeah i just think it's a really cool week um obviously the track's very iconic um i think it's cool to drive but i just think it's you know it's a bit of everything i think brazil's a cool country but also you know the the weather's always up in the air so the race is always very exciting um there's lots of overtaking opportunities but yeah you never know if it's going to be wet dry or rain in the middle or you know there's been some many many cool f1 races so um those three have been the three races i've been mostly involved to this year um you've done some driving in india this year as i understand it dc said he was out in mumbai uh with you we used to race in india i used to love that um out in greater noida uh near delhi it was such a fun event cool little track um how much did it mean to you to go to mumbai to do that event yeah it's it was very special i mean um you know i've been talking quite a lot you know really connecting um with my roots you know over the past few years um you know i'm very proud of my of my heritage uh it's quite a rare mix uh british swedish and indian um but yeah you know obviously you know i am british racing the british flag so i'm very connected with my uk roots sweden's quite close and growing up i spent a lot of time there uh and i'm very close to my grandparents my mom's side but india was you know quite far away um so my first time i went there was actually uh like two years ago I think it was end of 2024.

17:42So, you know, for me, that was that was very special. And I went again at the end of 25. And then, you know, to be going there, driving on the streets of Delhi, you know, in an F1 car was, yeah, it was even more special for me, you know, just to really connect with my roots and connect with the with the Indian people bring sort of, you know, the the love and passion to F1 of F1 back was was very cool. Because the support in India has been huge for a while. It's starting to blossom and really boom again. And the reaction to you when you went over to do that was absolutely huge. How much do you feel that, how much pride did you take from seeing that kind of a reaction?

18:23yeah it was pretty cool i mean i um i think i was just quite um grateful for the sort of welcome um and the sort of appreciation and the sort of you know kindness um that you know the the indian people sort of gave me um yeah because you know i'm aware that i don't race under the indian flag um and i do feel you know most associated to the uk um but i think just the the welcomeness uh and the kindness i think that was you know the biggest thing for me And you get to do all these cool things largely because of who you're racing with, being with racing balls, part of the Red Bull program. You're with a team that loves to embrace the social media side of things.

19:06And you're of an age where that I imagine would come naturally or is it a struggle? No, I would say some of it is different. You know, there's quite a few of the TikTok stuff that I wouldn't do off my own back. um but in general no you're right I mean when you've got someone to edit it for you it's a lot easier yeah but I just mean you know of my of my age um you know social media is a big thing um so in that regard I am very fortunate um and it's something I've been you know I've spoken about a lot you know that I'm I think for a lot of drivers the older ones especially they sort of I would say struggle with it but maybe it bothers them more because this is something that has sort of rapidly increased during their sort of career whereas for me because i'm young i've always seen the social media and just generally the marketing side of f1 and the media um as always a important part of it is always i've always seen it as a part of the job so for me it doesn't really bother me because i always knew that that was that was part of the job yeah how do you deal with social media and with what, you know, sort of living in an online space can represent.

20:18Because you're part of a younger generation that, as you said, has grown up with this. It's just the norm. For some of us that didn't, it can be quite hard and it can be quite challenging, not just the constant need to post and seemingly sort of share everything with the world, but that kind of instant ability for people to be able to reach out and and and connect with you be that in a positive or sadly as it is so often in in a negative way um how how do you handle that honestly i've been quite fortunate that i'd say i haven't really had any um really bad sort of interactions or anything you know like that so far um so i'm i'm not the best person to answer your question um but i would say you know i'm i try not to actually i don't really look at comments or you know all that sort of stuff um i do have a you know a scroll every now and again um but quite often i do it on my private account um nice you have a private burner account that you can go and look at stuff that's like not in your name or well i mean to be honest i remember when i was what 11 you know when i was in school um and we were all getting our phones um and obviously i had an instagram account from when i was nine it wasn't actually on my phone it was my my parents who set up um and when we were all getting phones around 11 12 you know when we're starting secondary school everyone was getting instagram accounts and i didn't really i didn't have access to my proper one and i didn't also want to use my proper one because i wanted to you know feel normal yeah so i remember i i got my own account you know and just made a private one with my mates um you know we all followed each other and you know we'd post random stories that's what we're doing and i just kept that account and that's my that's my private one that i you know i scroll on and um for me it's it's quite an important thing that i really try to focus on you know trying to be normal and trying to do you know normal stuff because there is a lot of my life that isn't normal um and i'm extremely grateful because you know it's normal for good reasons um you know i'm very very fortunate to be in this position um but when i'm at home you know i try to hang out with my friends i try to also feel like just a normal 18 year old kid that's not really brought up a lot in the stresses and the responsibilities that you guys as racing drivers have is so much of your childhood is lost to ultimately a profession and a job from a very young age and a hugely stressful one at that do you or i should say how much do you value that time then away from the track with your mates with the people that you've grown up with so you can in your own words feel like a normal 18 year old it's very important um it's something i value uh massively it's something that i would say i've um learned over the past year to value more um because you know as the as i've come up the ranks the seasons have become busier you get less time off and you learn that you need uh you need a distraction when you can find one um because you can't think about racing all day every day um it is is draining you need to find your way of switching off um and for me that is you know when I'm at home um it's hanging out with my mates it's going to the beach it's you know trying to really disconnect um so I value it massively it's definitely working you're impressing everybody uh in Formula One and around the motorsport world with your your rookie season in the sport it seems to be coming together so well for you for Liam for the team this year um how does it feel for you how does it feel within the organization um the season that you've had and the start that you've had i think it's good um i think the first few races were were pretty cool i think i impressed you know in melbourne and you know in japan um i would say overall i'm happy i wouldn't say i'm over the moon with it i would say there's definitely things that i want to do better and there is things i can do better um so i'm very focused on that but i would say it's been a positive start how does the mindset change and this is something i'm always fascinated in because when you're coming through f3 f2 every weekend you're going into the expectation is minimum points hopeful podium you know but the goal always is is win you then come to formula one and it's not quite like that and your expectations have to be measured how do you switch your head out of i'm gonna win this weekend to you know what scoring points would be a cracking result yeah it is uh it is a bit weird um because everything i've ever raced in i've wanted to win and i've almost you know it's not always it doesn't always happen but i every weekend i've gone into um there's a chance right well yeah i wouldn't be happy with a p5 you know you know the goal was always to win and now a p5 would be like it was yeah it'd be insane yeah um so it is weird but i think for me in the end you just realistically know what is possible in the end in f2 and f3 of the same car as everyone so you know that if you drive the best yes teams are different and there are good and bad teams but in theory if you drive the best you should be able to win whereas in f1 that's not the case because it's not 100 % a level playing field so i don't know for me honestly i just knew what was achievable with the package we had you know um that's changing a bit every weekend because the upgrades because it's a really you know fast development rate but you know you drive an fp1 you do a decent lap and you see where you are in the pecking order and you're like right okay that's roughly where we're going to be this week um and you know there's no point getting disappointed over something that's not achievable so for me i'm very aware of what is possible and i think that you know i'm lucky that the team have done a good job and brought us a really good card that we are fighting for points um because it is sometimes a bit disheartening if a win is p17 yeah um so yeah um back to to where we began the five-year-old arvid in the in the grandstands um this weekend for the british grand prix returning to silverson you have a beautiful new helmet for those watching they'll be able to see it for those listening just describe what we're what we're looking at and the work that's gone into uh into this helmet yeah it's uh it's quite something it's quite different um i don't know basically i wanted to to do something um that almost visualized my my journey and my path to silverstone to my first f1 race um so it's very you know on the back here i've got all the i'll just show you i've got all the images um you know i'd say very pivotal moments in my career um so i can't see them all now but you know starting on i've got them on the front here so starting on a motocross bike uh when i was three winning the british championship signing with you know red bull um the the double win in silverstone my first fp1 my first point so all very you know pivotal moments i'd say in my career um and i wanted it you know i always said from you know when I was five I believed I could be an f1 so I wanted it almost to look like a map like a journey envisioned from my five-year-old self so that's why the images are very childlike um they're quite basic um yeah and you know the dream big because you know like I said when I was five I believed it was possible so you know the the dream big you know it was it was very much my my goal it was my dream that's why it's you know my path my way um you know I'm was very fortunate to have the opportunities but i didn't come from a racing family it was something that i really pushed and it was uh it didn't come from my parents so yeah that's that's in a nutshell i'm very i think it looks really cool i think it's come out really well and i'm really looking forward to wearing it this weekend i love it um i love the message it's something i tell my kids as well dream big is uh i think it's a a wonderful mantra to have um you have dreamt big you have done it your way uh i'm so happy for you man and uh i'm happy for that five-year-old kid in the grandstand that gets to live his dreams and uh and realize that this weekend avid thanks so much for coming in thank you thank you for your time great to hear uh from avid and that brings to an end a bumper week of episodes here on up to speed after our regular monday episode our special with zach brown which came out yesterday if you haven't heard that do please find it uh and listen in And of course, talking to Arvid today, a desperately impressive young man, both on and off the track.

29:02As always, folks, you can get in touch with us via social media at UpToSpeedShow, via email uptospeedatglobal.com. And we'll be back on Monday after the British Grand Prix.

29:16This has been a Global Production.