Formula 1 rookie Arvid Lindblad has delivered a scathing self-assessment of his performance so far at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, admitting he has been "trying to be too special", as The Race reports. The Baku weekend is proving arguably the toughest of Lindblad’s impressive first season in F1, featuring a heavy crash in FP2 and several mistakes in qualifying. He ultimately ended up slowest of the Q2 runners, marking his second-worst result of the year.
Lindblad pointed out that the Racing Bulls car has been "bad on the brakes" all through practice and qualifying while "just not been fun to drive". Even so, he took full personal responsibility for misjudging how aggressive to be in practice and shattering his own confidence. His FP2 shunt happened after he took too much speed into the narrow castle section and slammed heavily into the wall on the outside. Unfortunately, it mirrored a second-practice crash at the last race in Madrid too.
I'm just mad at myself because, more than anything, in trying to be too special I've hurt my trajectory for when it matters and I haven't delivered in the moment,
The accident has left Lindblad running a slightly older specification of parts compared to team-mate Liam Lawson, after Racing Bulls debuted a new front wing here. "I have no confidence, to be honest," Lindblad admitted, adding that crashing yesterday does not help, nor does running a different car to Lawson or missing crucial mileage after missing the start of FP1 and FP2 before his shunt.
Despite admitting that Q3 might not have been possible given the team's struggles this weekend, Lindblad believes better management could have put him in a much better place. That frustration is compounded by his track record: he has started inside the top 10 for nine of the 14 grands prix, including the last seven in a row. "I'm just mad at myself because, more than anything, in trying to be too special I've hurt my trajectory for when it matters and I haven't delivered in the moment," he said.
Meanwhile, team-mate Lawson managed only 12th fastest on a tougher weekend for Racing Bulls. Lawson attributed the struggles to lacking engine performance compared to other teams in the midfield, which partly created a knife-edge situation on the brakes. "We're just trying to make up time that is not really there and it's really tough," Lawson noted, pointing out that tracks with very long straights like Monza and Baku make them suffer a little bit more now than before.
