‘No regrets’ - Arvid Lindblad on Racing Bulls failed ‘hero’ gamble
Racing Bulls split its strategies in Hungary, but Arvid Lindblad was content with the outcome despite falling behind his team-mate.
Arvid Lindblad has stated that he has 'no regrets' after Racing Bulls attempted a bold alternate strategy at the Hungarian Grand Prix in a bid to shuffle him up the order.
Racing Bulls continued its impressive points-scoring form at the Hungaroring, but Lindblad was left feeling that he could have done better than a 10th place finish.
A poor start cost the rookie driver, with his team then keeping him on a one-stop strategy in order to make back the lost ground. On a track where overtaking has historically proven to be limited, Lindblad agrees that this was a solid plan.
However, with tyres that were degrading at an increased rate in the high temperatures, the positions gained through stopping only once were swiftly lost, but Lindblad holds nothing against the team for trying what could have been a 'hero' move.
"It wasn't a great lap one, so obviously I wasn't the happiest with that, but I'll look into it," he said. "Then from there, I think pace was quite similar. Maybe he was a tiny bit quicker.
"Then on the strategy, it was a bit of a shame the one-stop didn't work, but I fully understand [the decision] from the team's point of view.
"It was a big question mark going into the race. We saw Nico trigger the two, and we decided to split the strategy with the cars, which makes sense, because if the hard hung on better, I would have looked like a hero being P8. Unfortunately, it didn't, so Liam was the one who maximised.
"I think from the team's point of view, it was the maximum that was possible today. So I don't have any regrets about the one-stop not working, because it could've been the other way around quite easily."
Racing Bulls team-mate Liam Lawson crossed the line in eighth place, with Audi driver Nico Hulkenberg separating the pair. Unlike Lindblad, the New Zealander was switched to a more conventional two-stop strategy in order to cover off the Audi threat, with this turning out to be the better play.
"We didn't plan on two-stopping, so that was something that was a surprise," said Lawson.
"I'd been managing the first part of that hard stint, and I could feel that there was something going on behind, because just the communication with with Alex [Iliopoulos - Lawson's race engineer].
"He was mentioning the Audis, but not saying too much, and then out of nowhere it was "push, we need to box." Obviously, a long stint on the soft at the end, but it was a great call from the team."
Sam joined Crash.net in February 2026 with extensive experience in motorsport media, having covered numerous championships around the world.
