Lindblad outlines hopes and explains helmet design for ‘incredibly special’ first home race at Silverstone

Arvid Lindblad has opened up on how he feels ahead of his first home race in Formula 1, in which he will showcase a uniquely personal helmet design as he takes on the British Grand Prix.

While the 18-year-old has competed at Silverstone throughout his junior career, he has yet to enjoy the experience of driving in front of his home crowd in F1 machinery with Racing Bulls – a team on an impressive three-race streak of both Lindblad and Liam Lawson finishing in the points.

Looking ahead to the weekend on Thursday's media day, he said: “I’m extremely excited. It’s going to be a very special moment for me. I remember being here in 2013 when I was five and sitting at Maggotts and Becketts with my dad.

“As I was watching the cars go past, it was when I was really learning about my love for the sport and asking him questions. Is it possible to be there one day? Could that be me? 13 years later, to be coming here as an F1 driver will be incredibly special.”

To mark the progress Lindblad has made from sitting in the Silverstone grandstands as a fan to taking part behind the wheel, his helmet this weekend will feature hand-drawn designs created by British-Indian artist Navinder Nangla.

The childlike sketches reference his dad’s support in his motorsport career and memorable achievements, as well as the Union flag and inspirational phrases like ‘dream big’ and ‘my path my way’.

Lindblad said the design is “quite different”, explaining: “I wanted something that really reflected my journey to this point, almost like a map of it as such. As I’ve said before, when I was five [or] six, I believed I could be in F1 so I wanted the images to be almost like me envisioning my journey as my five-year-old self.

“I’ve got lots of little sketches on the back of my helmet of pivotal moments that have helped me get here, and the phrases of ‘dream big’ and that sort of stuff. I think it’s really cool and I’m looking forward to using it on track this week.”

The British Grand Prix also offers another opportunity for Racing Bulls to build on their momentum and run of top-10 finishes, and close the gap to Alpine – who currently sit 13 points ahead as the fifth-highest team in the standings.

Asked how optimistic he feels about his team’s chances, Lindblad replied: “Very confident. I think the team have done an amazing job to bring upgrades, to bring performance to the car over the past few races.

“It wasn’t that long ago we were in Miami and it wasn’t easy to get out of Q1. We’ve shown in the past few weeks how strong the car is, so they’ve done an amazing job. Hopefully that will stay the same this week.

“We need to see what the deployment is like, what things are like in Qualifying and the race, but so far we’ve been reasonably decent on the straights so it hopefully should be okay.”