Racing
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Arvid Lindblad did not start the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix after a clutch failure hit just before the formation lap and left his Racing Bulls unable to select a gear.
The rookie said the problem struck at the start procedure when he tried to put the car in gear and nothing happened. Lindblad explained that the issue came “right before the start of the formation lap” and said, “The lights turned on before the start and I tried to put it in gear, but it wouldn’t go into gear.” That left him with a DNS before his race had even begun.
It was a brutal end to what had been one of his strongest weekends in Formula 1. On his first visit to Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Lindblad qualified ninth for both the sprint and the Grand Prix, reached SQ3 and took eighth in the sprint to score a point. His ninth on the grid matched his season-best qualifying result from Australia and again put him at the front of the midfield.
A big part of that pace came from Racing Bulls’ latest upgrade package. Lindblad said the team brought a revised floor and beam wing to Montreal and called it “a solid step.” After a Miami update that had not delivered what the team expected, he said he arrived in Canada with lower expectations, only to feel comfortable from the first lap of FP1 and competitive throughout the weekend.
That made the non-start even harder to take because Lindblad believed Racing Bulls had a real chance to turn its speed into points in the mixed conditions. “I was really looking forward to racing in conditions like this, so it’s truly disappointing that I didn’t get that chance,” he said. He added: “I think we had the pace to earn the result today. That’s why the frustration is big that we couldn’t bring the result back.”
Lindblad underlined that frustration by pointing to Franco Colapinto running sixth at the time he spoke, noting that he had been due to start ahead of him. He also said the weekend had been “truly positive” until the failure, praising Racing Bulls for doing “a perfect job throughout the weekend” and saying the upgrades had worked.
Even with Canada ending in a DNS, Lindblad said he still leaves Montreal with confidence. He said there are “many positive elements” to take into Monaco and that he is looking forward to driving an F1 car there for the first time.