F1 Rookie Lindblad Gets First Driving Lesson Before Belgian Grand Prix

There’s something delightfully absurd about the situation unfolding with 18-year-old Arvid Lindblad. The Racing Bulls driver can thread a car through Silverstone at qualifying speeds, but he can’t legally drive himself to the grocery store in Britain. That contradiction caught up with him recently—and he’s finally doing something about it.

Lindblad made a candid appearance at the Sky Sports commentary box during the England versus India cricket one-day international at Edgbaston on Tuesday, where the subject of his driving license came up. He acknowledged the elephant in the room:“It’s a bit sad that I haven’t got my licence. It was funny for a bit and now it’s just getting a bit silly.”The solution? His first formal driving lesson happened just the day before. He’s passed his theory test, which is progress, but actually getting behind the wheel for road driving is a whole different beast from piloting a Formula One car at 200-plus mph.

The timeline is remarkable. Lindblad finds himself just days away from the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps—home to the fearsome Eau Rouge corner—while simultaneously working toward the kind of license most drivers get in their early twenties. He’s already shown real promise in his first F1 season with the Red Bull-owned team, scoring points in his last four races and sitting 11th in the 22-driver standings. Mercedes’championship leader Kimi Antonelli, winner of five races this season, managed to pass his driving test in Italy at 18, so it’s not impossible. But the contrast between Lindblad’s professional credentials and his civilian driving status is genuinely funny—and apparently, he agrees it’s high time to close that gap.

When handed an England cricket shirt with his name on the back at Edgbaston, Lindblad turned his attention to Spa and what he described as a feeling he’d never experienced before. For someone accustomed to racing at the highest level of motorsport, that kind of anticipation says something about just how intense that circuit truly is. Meanwhile, somewhere in Britain, an 18-year-old British-born driver with Indian heritage on his mother’s side is learning to parallel park. Speed comes naturally; apparently, the rules of the road are a different challenge altogether.