“Lando I want you to remember me, I will see you in five years."

Those were the words of a then 14-year-old British karting star Arvid Lindblad to Lando Norris in 2021 as the pair shook hands in the paddock at Adria Karting Raceway in Italy.

Norris was there to launch his own karting team and a cheeky Lindblad, who will step up from Formula 2 to Formula 1 with Racing Bulls at the start of 2026, decided to send him a message.

"It was really just like a spur of the moment. I was talking with my mate at the track, and we saw Lando," Lindblad, who is now 18 years old, told Sky Sports.

"I said to my mate, 'I'll be racing with him soon in F1' and my friend was like, 'you don't have the guts to tell him' and I wanted to prove him wrong!

"So I went straight up to Lando and he was very kind about it. I said, 'it was nice to meet you and see in five years'. I got inspired by Lewis Hamilton telling Ron Dennis [he would join McLaren] and it was a similar kind of vibe, so it was just my friend egging me on!

"That was at the end of 2021, so hopefully I have a good year in F2 and hopefully I will be in F1 and stick to my word!"

Watching Hamilton as a kid

Lindblad's reference to Hamilton goes back to 1995 when a 10-year-old Hamilton told then McLaren team principal Dennis at the Autosport Awards that he wanted to race one of his F1 cars one day.

Hamilton was notching up title after title at Mercedes when Lindblad, who first stepped into a go-kart at the age of five, grew up watching F1.

"I remember moments when I was four or five, when Seb [Vettel] was winning, but not really much," he said.

"As you can imagine when Lewis started winning, I was seven or eight, and that was really when I started to understand the sport a bit better.

"I came into it at a time when he was successful and he was British, he was also a man of colour and I thought there was some sort of cool link as well because his rookie season in F1 was 2007 and I was born in 2007. I always just felt some affiliation towards him."

Lindblad, born in Surrey, has a Swedish father and a mother of Indian heritage. He has always raced under the British flag and had clear talent from a young age.

Reigning Formula E champion Oliver Rowland took Lindblad under his wing and describes the teenager as "special".

"I first met Arvid back in 2016. I had a call from my old go-kart team, Zip Kart, who were really important in my career," explained Rowland.

"They said, 'look we have got this young kid, he's got the potential, seems good'. He was seven at the time. They asked if I would be interested in a bit of coaching, I said, 'let me come and have a look at him' because I was quite busy at the time.

"I went down to Whilton Mill, the karting venue, on his first day, saw him go around as a seven-year-old and he was pretty impressive.

"What impressed me most was his maturity level for someone of that age. He was so inquisitive on my racing, how to go faster, clearly all he lived and breathed was the thought of being a racing driver, which was quite strange at such a young age."

A meteoric karting rise

Rowland started a karting team, Oliver Rowland Motorsport, just for Lindblad as the latter and his family were not happy with their karting set-up at the time.

Lindblad won the British Championship and soon started competing at world karting level, fighting for titles against drivers older than him.

"From the beginning, it was always about trying to be in Formula 1 and wanting to be a world champion," he said.

"When I was seven or eight, I was always the young guy because I actually wasn't old enough to race. I was racing in an eight-to-13 category and there were moments where I was really fast, when I was as fast as the good guys.

"I kind of got a bit of confidence there and then when I was nine or 10, I was fighting for the British Championship, then won the British Championship.

"Then I went to Europe, and I was quite good. I don't think there's ever a distinct moment where I was like, 'maybe I'm good enough'. I just kind of cracked on.

"Everything I did, I wanted to win, and it was always about trying to be better, how I can improve. I think that was a big part of it. When I was racing, my dad said it was much more important to focus on me and my development, so I have a lot of driver coaches and all that kind of stuff to really focus on me. It's always about, how can I be better?

"Then I just took it in my stride and focused on every step of the ladder and trying to do as good as possible."

Becoming a Red Bull junior

As is becoming increasingly common, those who shine in karting make the jump to Formula 4 as soon as possible when they turn 15 years old - the minimum age to race those cars.

Lindblad did this and already had the backing of Red Bull, who he signed for as a 13-year-old at the end of 2020.

"I don't know all the ins and outs of what happened, because I was 13 at the time. I was focused on the results and the performance because, that's the most important thing in any sport," he said.

"I just remember very well there was some communication between my dad and some guys in the team that had a link with Red Bull, but I don't know the ins and outs.

"I just remember very well that I was with my dad in the hotel in Portimao. We were testing for the [karting] World Championship. We were just there having breakfast one morning, and my dad's phone was on the table and it rang.

"There was a number, and under it said 'Graz, Austria'. I didn't really think much of it. I was kind of like: 'Who could that be?' Because I didn't really know there were discussions at the time.

"I remember, I knew something was up because I saw him pick up the phone and walk off with a bit of a skip in his step.

"He came back and he said Dr Marko wanted to meet us to discuss me joining the program, which obviously I was over the moon about.

"Then we ended up meeting him on the Sunday morning of the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix, where he asked me to join the programme and that's how it started."

Climbing up the single-seater ranks

Lindblad finished third in his full maiden Italian F4 season in 2023, surpassing expectations of himself and those who were keeping a close eye on his career.

He won the Macau F4 World Cup race at the end of that year, then stepped up to F3 in 2024. While he did not win the championship, Lindblad's outright speed and ability to adapt to quicker machinery raised eyebrows.

At Silverstone, he won both races, which included an incredible performance in mixed conditions where he was towards the rear of the field at one point.

His championship challenge fell away though as he scored no more points in the final six race weekends, partly due to misfortune.

Nevertheless, Lindblad impressed many people and earned a call up to F2, where he has endured a mixed season with flashes of great speed but mistakes too.

He won the Sprint in Saudi Arabia then converted pole position into victory in Spain but was never really in the title hunt. However, Red Bull have been impressed enough to give him an opportunity to make the step up to F1.

How Lindblad earned a super licence and impressed in F1 practice

Lindblad has a Super Licence, which enables him to drive in F1, after he won the Formula Regional Oceania Championship at the start of 2025.

Red Bull clearly see Lindblad as a potential future star and have a history of fast-tracking drivers to F1, with this the latest example of how they deal with young drivers.

He completed two private Tests at Imola earlier this year in a 2023 AlphaTauri, then made his free practice debut with Red Bull at the British Grand Prix in July and the Mexico City Grand Prix in October, impressing Red Bull in both instances.

His sixth place in Mexico was notable as he was faster than Yuki Tsunoda with the same equipment and quickest of the nine rookies who drove in the session.

"He was told, 'don't do anything wrong, don't crash the car'," said Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko.

"But he still delivered and was the fastest rookie and I have to say his technical feedback was also impressive, so we are very happy with him."

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies added: "I think he did a great job. It's so difficult to step up in FP1. It's very different to test days. You don't have many tyres, you don't have many laps.

"He did just a very good job. You have seen it on the timesheets by yourself. He was very calm. He gave all the right feedback. He didn't put the foot wrong. He didn't break the car. Honestly, he has impressed us on that FP1, no question about that."

So can Lindblad become an F1 champion?

It is very early to be asking this question but Lindblad's mentor, Rowland, was optimistic when speaking earlier this year that Britain have another big motorsport talent in the making.

"I rate Arvid on the real highest of levels. He has everything that's needed, and more, to have the potential to become F1 world champion," he said.

"It's still a long journey from now until that point, so there's a lot for him to learn, a lot for him to develop. Formula 1 is also not just about the driver in some cases, but I absolutely believe that, where he is right now, at this moment in time, he will be a future world champion."

The 2025 Formula 1 season concludes with the title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix live on Sky Sports F1 from Friday. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime

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