19-year-old Christian Lundgaard is the son of Henrik Lundgaard. Henrik is a Danish rally driver known for winning the 2000 European Rally Championship for Toyota Castrol. He has also come second in the Danish Touring Car Championship twice. A passion for motorsports clearly runs in the family as Christian’s brother Daniel has won Danish Formula 4, Formula Ford Denmark, and a Danish karting championship. While his dad is well known in the rally world, can Christian bring the family name into Formula One?

Source: Formula 2 website

Christian started professionally karting in 2012, and in 2016 he ranked 5th on motorsports.com’s top 10 karting drivers with potential. In 2017, he made his single-seater debut in Spanish Formula 4, Danish Formula 4, and SMP Formula 4. He went on to win the Spanish and SMP championships that year for MP Motorsport. He was vice-champion of Formula Renault Eurocup in 2018, again partnering with MP Motorsport. In 2019, Christian placed 4th in Formula 3 with ART Grand Prix in his debut and only season. Lundgaard also came 4th in the challenging Macau Grand Prix in 2019 with ART. His experience in many junior categories makes him a promising driver, but will he get to the pinnacle of motorsport?

2020 was his debut of Formula 2, and we saw the young Dane achieve two wins and six podiums. His first win came at Austria’s Redbull Ring during the second sprint race of the weekend. He started the sprint race in 3rd due to the reverse grid and was able to finish 1st.  Lundgaard got into 2nd within the first corner and overtook Ticktum for 1st on lap 4. His second win was in the Tuscan hills of the Mugello circuit, where he not only won the race but his pole setting lap in qualifying set the Formula 2 record on the circuit. His speed got him 7th in the championship, which is impressive for a rookie.

 Christian Lundgaard at the 2019 Macau GP (Photo via Creative Commons)

This year, Christian is in his second season of Formula 2 with ART Grand Prix and has already scored his first podium of the year. He seems to be one of the drivers fighting near the top with 16 points from the first weekend. He is backed by the Alpine Academy, which allows him to work closely with and get seen by a Formula 1 team. The academy helps young drivers train, work, and prepare for the rigor of the series. While he shows great potential, he seemingly has competition as fellow F2, and Alpine Academy drivers Guanyu Zhou and Oscar Piastri are higher in the championship standings. Will he be able to prove he deserves a seat?