Swedish star Fredrik Lindgren insisted “I still believe I have my best years ahead of me” as he prepares for the WWK Schwaiger & Partner FIM Speedway GP of Germany – Landshut next Saturday.
Lindgren may have celebrated his 40th birthday last September, but he’s still one of Speedway GP’s frontrunners, having finished in the world’s top five every season since 2018.
The 2023 SGP silver medallist and three-time bronze medallist shows no signs of slowing down as he prepares for his 18th season in the World Championship.
Asked what drives him to keep chasing his title dream, he replied: “Good question. I think maybe if I had won a title, it would have been different. But I haven’t, so I am still searching for that thing, and it keeps me motivated.
“Even though I am 40 years old, I still believe I have my best years ahead of me. I’m still trying to get better, improve myself and I think that’s what keeps me going.
“I saw this study the other day that says your body doesn’t deplete until you are 70 years old. You can still, in theory, train like an athlete until you are 70. That was good news to me to see that.
“It’s a lot – with the training, being away from the family and travelling. It takes a lot out of you. But at the moment, I am very motivated. Even on my bad days, I still want to do it.”
Lindgren raced his first full-time Speedway GP season in 2008, missing only the 2015 campaign since then. He admits losing his SGP spot at the end of 2014 was a real turning point in his career.
“It was hard for me,” he said. “I came into the GP series pretty young, and I got my first win in my fifth season (at Gothenburg’s Ullevi Stadium in 2012). I was always around eighth to 10th place in the GP for a long time.
“Even after that win, it kept being like that – eighth to 10th place. I lost my spot in the series after the 2014 season, which was a year when I really tried to change stuff and be more serious with my training and fitness. I spent a hell of a lot of money on my equipment, but it didn’t work out, so after 2014, I remember thinking to myself about calling it quits or trying again.
“In 2015, I was just trying to find what to do, and I decided that I wanted to try to give it another push. I sat down and looked at everything, from my fitness to my bikes, travel arrangements – everything I could do to make the details better. I got some results after that.
“In 2015, I had a really tough year. I wasn’t scoring any points in the leagues, but I had two really good meetings. I almost qualified for the GP at the SGP Challenge. I also won the World Cup with Team Sweden. I knew I could still do it in the big meetings. Then I felt, ‘I’m not done yet.’ I still wanted to do this, but I didn’t want to do it half-heartedly. I want to give it 100 percent.”
Lindgren admits he is a different rider in 2026 to the one that joined Speedway GP 18 years ago. He confessed: “Maybe in my early years, there was a bit too much rock and roll. Let me put it this way; the Freddie of before was half an athlete and half a rock and roll man. Today, I see myself as a 100-percent athlete. I eat right. I drink right. I train right. I try to do everything right to be the best that I can be.”
After establishing himself as a rock-solid performer at the sharp end of the Speedway GP standings, Lindgren is now seeking the most marginal of marginal gains to take that final step and become Sweden’s first world champion since Tony Rickardsson claimed title No.6 in 2005.
He said: “I need to find that last bit to be No. 1, and that’s really tricky it seems. It’s those really small gains you need to find. A guy who is winning all the time like Bartosz (Zmarzlik) has those gains, and he knows what to do. I lack a bit of consistency at the moment, and I need to get better.”
Whatever the end result, Lindgren is determined to leave no stone unturned in his search for Speedway GP success.
He said: “No matter if I finish 15th or first, if I can look myself in the mirror and say, ‘You gave everything you had every day in life,’ you can’t do more. The results will be the results. You can only control the effort. If I give it 100 percent, I can’t do more than that.”