Guest Column
Arvid Lindblad’s Silverstone Weekend in his Words
It was quite the few days for Arvid Lindblad as he became the first driver to win all races on a single weekend, and to make it even more special, he did it on home soil at Silverstone.
The PREMA Racing rookie is now firmly in the Drivers’ Championship hunt, so it was a good thing that we managed to catch up with him during an exceptional Round 7.
PRACTICE – P15
“Practice was okay. A wet session in the end but it started pretty greasy and was pretty close to the crossover quite early, so we didn't want to do too much running at the risk of ruining a set of wets. But then towards the end of the session got quite wet, did a few laps, the pace was pretty decent.”
RACE ANALYSIS: How decisions under pressure played a huge role in the Silverstone Feature
QUALIFYING – P11
“Going into Quali I was quite confident it would be dry. Obviously, I've not done any running here in an F3 before, and very few laps just in general so it was going to be a bit challenging but in general the pace was quite strong. But to be honest it was quite a disappointing session. It was okay in the first run, but it started to rain during the warmup of the second run and our timing of the third run we just got it wrong.
“I was the first to cross the line to start my lap, Sector one was still wet, there was a small mistake from my side, but I think the biggest thing was that we were on track at the wrong point. We were lucky it didn't affect our weekend, but it was quite a big mistake which wasn't great.”
“It was raining in the pit lane just before and we thought we would go out just to see if it does dry what would happen and then on the out lap already, I told my engineer 'Mate through T3, 4, 6,7 are dry, the track is dry'. Then he was like ‘okay let's just keep focusing on the warmup.’
“When I say dry, it wasn't quite full dry that you could push but it was dry enough. It was still drizzling a bit at the time, but it didn't seem to be affecting the track. Sector one was wet on my lap, I did a really good sector two and three, but I lost a lot in Sector one and being the first to cross the line in these conditions is the last thing you want. This really put us on the backfoot, was lucky to be in the top 12 to be honest.”
READ MORE: Browning remains confident in title bid despite ‘tough weekend’ at Silverstone
SPRINT RACE – P1
“Started second for the Sprint Race, knowing I will be 11th for the Feature, it was about maximising because I knew that would be our race for the weekend. Got a good start, got the lead immediately and then I was just trying to manage a bit, but the pace of the race was just really high, so it wasn't much saving, and it was pretty flat out.
“There was quite a lot of deg but being in the lead and probably just managed it a bit better in the beginning so didn't deg as hard as the others so built a big gap.”
FEATURE RACE – P1
“Going into today I didn't have many big expectations. I was going to start 10th due to a grid penalty for someone else, so thought P6 would be a good result to save the weekend but with the rain it was such a mess. We made the right call on the Formation Lap to box for slicks, to be honest. On the grid I wanted to stay on slicks, but I was told that there was a lot of rain coming on the radar, but we thought on the Formation Lap that the track was fully dry to take a gamble, take a risk.
“We put the slicks on, and it was immediately the right call. I was already fast, then we had some Safety Cars but as soon as that ended, I went to the front and then I was informed there was going to be a period of rain in the middle, and it was going to be about surviving and managing it. I was still pretty confident that if it stopped, we would come back through as the track was drying super quick and this is what happened.
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“I just had to survive. I think at one point I was 20th or something but as soon as the Safety Car came in, we just went straight back through to the front, and I had really good pace. Callum with the penalty a bit of a shame for him but when I heard he had the penalty I wasn't as focused on trying to pass him because it was just a risk, maybe I would have tried harder if he didn’t have a penalty.
“To do the double in Silverstone is pretty insane, the race today was crazy, the Safety Cars helped us out quite a lot because when it was at its wettest, Safety Cars meant the wet runners couldn't really pull away. Amazing result super grateful to the team, definitely not what I would have imagined when I woke up this morning or even coming into this weekend. It’s a crazy feeling, so happy and can’t wait for Budapest.”
NEXT UP - BUDAPEST
“I'm looking forward to it. Coming off a good weekend it's going to be exciting. But I haven't been to the track before and it's a really technical, really challenging circuit, so will be really testing for me. It’s going to be important to prepare well in the sim and maximise FP.
"Quali pace has been strong for quite a few rounds now, so we need to keep that up. Budapest is going to be really important to have a good quali because passing is so hard. So, we will have to be on top of that, I need to switch on quickly. I think the weekend will be very different, a lot more challenges I need to face, definitely not going into it with the expectations to win but we will see how it goes, prepare the best we can and try and maximise the weekend.”