Arvid Lindblad 2024 Season Review: A record-breaking rookie year

Arvid Lindblad described his 2024 Formula 3 campaign with PREMA Racing as “incredible” with the rookie achieving several records on his way to finishing fourth in the Standings.

The Red Bull junior made a spectacular start to the season winning on his debut at the opening Sprint Race of the year in Sakhir.

His first Feature Race victory in Barcelona followed a few rounds later before Lindblad became the first driver to win all races across an F3 weekend at Silverstone.

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Reflecting on it all, Lindblad said: “It was a very good year. Going in I knew it was going to be really challenging, really difficult, I'd only done one year of F4 before this so I had very little experience.

“I knew majority of the tracks but not all and with the way the format is it was going to be really challenging. Also, with how little driving time there was I knew it was going to be difficult and the level is so high as well.

“I am really grateful to everyone at Red Bull, everyone at PREMA, everyone on my team as well who prepared me and got me ready. I feel like we prepared really well from the Jerez test to Bahrain and made a massive step forward.

“But I kept that trajectory up to Barcelona and also to Silverstone and I think both of those were huge factors which led to a strong year, I couldn’t have asked for anything more. I knew one year was going to be difficult, that was the target to try and do only one, but I knew it was going to be a big ask.

“But a lot of people around me did an amazing job and helped me to achieve this strong result. Overall, it was an incredible season, really happy with it, some things to still work on but overall, really happy.”

While he went into the final round in Monza with a chance of winning the title, Lindblad’s hopes took a hit when he went without a point in the prior two rounds.

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He acknowledges that he “could have done better” at Spa but puts his difficulties in Budapest and Monza down to things outside of his control.

As his preparations begin for 2025 in Formula 2, Lindblad still views his F3 campaign positively, especially when told that his win percentage of 20 is now the best in the Championship’s history.

The Briton puts that “good stat” down to his continuous improvement throughout the season, especially in the behind-the-scenes aspects that the public do not see.

“The pace was strong at the beginning but it wasn't amazing,” he explained. “It was good in the races, for example in Bahrain and Melbourne I think I qualified ninth and eighth. But then we had the Barcelona test and from that point I made a good step forward.

“I was in the top five for quite a few rounds consistently after that, so there was definitely a step forward in pace from Melbourne and Imola. Then there was tyre management and gaining more experience as well.

“It’s hard to say because tyre management in Imola and Melbourne, I had such bad deg, some of it was that in Bahrain and Melbourne, I was racing people that I was quicker than so it's easy to save. But when I started to get more competitive in the Feature Race, you are racing people who are really fast.

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“So, to be able to combine driving fast and then really managing the tyres super well, both of those factors are something I struggled with at the beginning and that was something that improved.

“Then I think other behind the scenes stuff improved that had an effect on the outcome, a lot of small things I picked up through experience in the Championship. So, like my understanding of how to manage FPs, putting yourself in the best position in Quali, and how to handle Quali sessions.

“A lot of times you have don't have time to do a setup change on the car during Quali so whether you prioritise track position or a setup change but it's that kind of stuff that you get experience from doing and a lot of those had a big effect on the results.”

Reflecting on his 20 races in Formula 3, Lindblad picked out some of his highlights, and while Silverstone will live long in his memory, there were other moments that stood out.

“Silverstone is the basic answer,” he said. “Obviously that is incredible, I had not raced at home in England since 2018, and doing the double was insane. So, if I could choose one moment from the year, I would choose that weekend and mainly the Feature Race.

“It's probably the first time ever in motorsport where I won a race, I didn't think I was going to win. It was not being negative, it was being realistic, when you start P9 in a dry race, on a track like Silverstone, on the hard tyre and deg is so huge, I was thinking if I finished P5, P6, P7 and rescue some points it would be a good weekend, so winning was insane.

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“But other ones that were really special as well were obviously the Bahrain Sprint. The first weekend, win on debut, Monaco quali, and this was something that was a bit overlooked and in my opinion was more impressive than some of the other stuff I did.

“It was my first time at the track, we did two laps in FP and I did two laps in Quali but because of Red Flags in our group, the other group had four push laps, we had two and everyone I was racing against had been there three or four times before.

“On a street circuit like that you build that knowledge and because we did literally two laps in FP in the dry and two laps in Quali to deliver, and obviously the Barcelona Feature and Silverstone, but those were impressive to the point that I almost surprised myself.”