Arvid Lindblad has admitted he lost confidence after a crash in final practice for the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix, before bouncing back to ninth in the race. The rookie's incident in FP3 threatened to derail his weekend at the Madrid circuit, but he showed resilience to secure a top-10 finish.
Lindblad is enjoying a competitive rookie season in 2026, lying 11th in the standings after ten point-scoring finishes to date, including two consecutive ones in the last two races. His ninth place in Madrid came after a crash in final practice that saw him miss the majority of the session, losing valuable on-track data.
Despite the setback, Lindblad secured tenth on the grid in qualifying. The Briton admitted that he lost confidence ahead of qualifying but said that crashing was “inevitable” as he continued to build experience in F1.
“I lost a lot of confidence, which is so important on a street track, missed basically all of FP3, and wasn’t happy in qualifying, but I managed to put a lap together and put it in Q3,” he said to media, including Motorsport Week. “I definitely think that if I hadn’t had the crash, the trajectory to qualifying would have been very different, and I would have been a lot happier.”
“It is something to learn from, and in the end, I am not going to beat myself up for crashing because it is something that is inevitable. I’ve been so on the limit this year, I’ve been so fast, and it was my 10th Q3 [appearance] of the season. I am allowed to make mistakes, and I am going to learn from it.”
Lindblad praised his efforts in qualifying and the race, believing that he has the ability to “bounce back” in the face of adversity. “I think it is good, and that I’ve shown again, and I’ve shown all year, that when things get difficult, I can still bounce back,” he continued. “[It was] in Japan, there was an issue in Budapest and the same [in Madrid], this time it was a bit more of my own fault, but I am happy with how we bounced back. It wasn’t easy.”
Lindblad is not short of confidence, justified after his performance following his crash. His next step will come when an extended bounce back is required.
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