Arvid Anand Olof Lindblad is a Swedish Indian racing driver born and brought up in Virginia Water, England. The young lad Lindblad, has been selected to race for Racing Bulls alongside Liam Lawson in 2026.
Arvid Lindblad got his FIA Super Licence before he was 18 years old!
The FIA, right after Max Verstappen came into F1 at only 17 years of age, changed the rules to ensure that for anyone to obtain a Super Licence, they would need to be atleast 18 years old and also hold a valid drivers licence.
But for Arvid Lindblad, the FIA superseded this rule.
Why?
Because, the FIA added a line to this rule which states, “At the sole discretion of the FIA, a driver judged to have recently and consistently demonstrated outstanding ability and maturity in single-seater formula car competition may be granted a Super Licence at the age of 17 years old.”
Last year, in June the FIA received a request to grant a Super Licence to Arvid before his 18th birthday, to which they agreed upon after considering his performance, skill, and talent in single seater racing.
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How did it all start?
Well, Arvid began karting much like all other Formula races in his early age. At the age of 9, he was taken under the wing of Oliver Rowland, the champion of Formula E for Nissan in 2024-25, also the manager as well as the mentor of Arvid.
Arvid had progressed form shifter karts to Italian F4 championship. In 2023, came his first win in F4, in the F4 UAE championship, at the Dubai Autodrome.
The lad did it all in one year – Euro 4, F4 in UAE, Italy, and Macau!
Arvid raced in the Euro 4 Championship and went on to finish fourth in the championship. He also raced in Formula 4 South East Asia Championship with Prema Racing, at the Macau Grand Prix Circuit, where he got pole position, won the qualifying race, and then went on to win the main race!
Arvid was only using the stage 1 boosters until now.
After a very busy year in Formula 4, Arvid stepped up to Formula 3 in 2024. He signed with the Mumbai Falcons to race in the Formula Regional Middle East Championship. He won the first round held at the Yas Marina Circuit from reverse Pole and he won the Sprint Race in Bahrain.
Arvid broke a record in Barcelona! He became the youngest winner in F3 history!
In Barcelona, the sprint race saw Lindblad finishing 9th, but the feature race was dominated by him. He qualified 2nd and overtook Christian Mansell on Pole on Lap 4 of the race to take the victory and become the youngest ever driver to win a Formula 3 race in its history.
Arvid Lindblad, the young driver breaking records!
Arvid Lindblad had started out 2024, in the hopes like many other drivers, to rise up and to step up to the next rung of the ladder to Formula 1. Who knew that his maiden year in F3 would prove to be so successful that he would end up breaking world records?
In Silverstone, Arvid won the Sprint race, after snatching first place from Noel Leon. Then, he made his own strategy call to pit for dry tires during the formation lap. He rose from the pits to second place much like Max Verstappen’s charge in 2025 from the pits to the podium, except for Arvid, luck really shined on him that day as the race leader, Callum Voisin got a penalty and Lindblad got the win.
Arvid became the youngest driver ever to win both the Sprint race as well as the Feature race in F3 history. Although the remainder of the season was not good for our Swedish-Indian driver, he still managed to finish 4th in the championship standings, and his brilliant performance in the season won Prema Racing the Teams’ Championship in 2024.
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Formula 2 was waiting for him in 2025!
Campos Racing singed him on for 2025 in Formula 2. In Jeddah, he rose from the 5th spot on the grid to 2nd and then ended up inheriting the win due to a penalty for Richard Verschoor.
Yet another record broken! Lindblad becomes the youngest F2 winner at only 17 years of age in Jeddah!
Barcelona was another success as he became the second youngest Pole Sitter after Theo Pourchaire in F2, and from there he went on to win the race. Other races like Monaco and Imola, luck was not on his side and only managed a 5th place 8th and 5th respectively.
The rest of the races, were not too good for our Lindb’Lad’. The season finale although, gave him a comeback opportunity, which he grasped like a drowning man a piece of a float. Arvid managed to win the Sprint race at Abu Dhabi, and finished the season in 6th place overall.
How Red Bull got him the Super Licence?
Helmut Marko maybe old, stubborn, and still conforming to the old ways, but no one can argue that he has given the sport of F1 some great drivers like Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen. Similarly, Arvid comes from the brainchild of Helmut Marko, the Red Bull Junior program.
Red Bull was influential in Arvid getting his Super Licence before his 18th birthday, rather it was Red Bull who requested the grant of his Super Licence from the FIA!
Since he got his licence to race, not kill, he has replaced Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda, at the Mexico Grand Prix and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for FP1 in 2025. Now, he has replaced Isack Hadjar at Racing Bulls.
Arvid Lindblad will race for Racing Bulls in 2026!
