Photo: Red Bull Content Pool
Arvid Lindblad has exceeded his own expectations with his first two Formula 3 race weekends, but there is an area where improvement is clearly needed.
The Red Bull junior is with F3’s top team Prema, and won on debut in the reversed-grid sprint race at Bahrain. He was runner-up in the Melbourne sprint race, but so far has four points from feature races (where the top five gets considerably more points than in sprints) to go with the 19 from his podiums.
He sits fifth in the standings, but would be 12th if the FIA F3 Championship disregarded reversed-grid races.
“It’s been a strong start to the year, better than I expected,” Lindblad told Formula Scout in the paddock, before praising his “really supportive” team for providing “a really good car” and “helping me to develop and continue to learn”.
“Coming from Formula 4, it was a very big step. So it wasn’t easy always in the testing. But every time I’ve been in the car, I’ve got better and better. I’ve got more comfortable, which is to be expected with such a big jump and how high the level is of the car, how few laps we do.
“I’m enjoying the car. I really like the downforce. It’s a really enjoyable car to drive. And I think that’s helping me to perform pretty well at the moment.
“[With] how few laps you do and how on it we need to be immediately, how much evolution [the tyres go through], how many things are changing all the time, that’s been the biggest thing[s] to deal with,” he explained.
“Melbourne was really the most difficult example of that. A track I’ve never been to before, with so few laps. And I think I did a good job on that. That’s the biggest thing for me to continue to work on.”
Lindblad’s aim pre-season was “in the beginning to try to be competitive in sprint races, qualify in the top 12 and be fighting for podiums on Saturdays and being aware that being competitive on Sunday would be difficult”. To then improve his feature race competitivity as the season went on was and remains the target.
Alongside him in Prema’s garage, Gabriele Mini has scored 23 of his 32 points in feature races while Dino Beganovic’s 28 points came from pole at Bahrain and victory with fastest lap in Melbourne’s feature race.
“I have two really strong team-mates that I can learn a lot from. So I’m trying to use them in the right way. Getting more competitive and trying to get in the top five on Sundays will be the target for the next few races.”
Lindblad reckons racing on familiar European tracks may help, but the impact will be limited.
“The level, you could argue, will be higher because of that. Everyone will be on it even quicker, going for perfect laps. So I don’t think it will change too much, and I’ll still need to be driving it 110%, as on the limit as I can.”