Photo: Gedlich Racing

Dries Van Langendonck starred again in the second round of the Formula Winter Series at the Algarve circuit, claiming two dominant wins from the three races.

In wet conditions that would persist throughout the race weekend, McLaren junior Van Langendonck was pipped to pole position by Rodin Motorsport team-mate Ethan Lennon in Saturday morning’s opening qualifying session. Just 0.08 seconds separated the two Rodin drivers – with half a second back to third-placed Ary Bansal of US Racing – but Lennon did enough to claim a double pole thanks to also having the leading second-fastest time.

Van Langendonck struck back in the second session, claiming race three pole by 0.844s over US Racing’s Oleksandr Savinkov with Lennon in third.

Despite the damp track, race one began with a grid start but Van Langendonck may have wished it hadn’t, since he stalled when the lights went out. He was able to get going at the rear of the field, running 27th at the end of lap one, but the same wasn’t true for team-mate Alfie Slater who didn’t get away from fourth and was struck by the right-rear tyre of Van Amersfoort Racing’s Pedro Lima.

Lennon led from Bansal during 20 minutes under safety car conditions while the stranded cars were recovered, but Bansal grabbed the lead into the first corner at the restart. Lennon and Bearman then banged wheels as they fought over second place two corners later.

Having kept Bearman at bay, Lennon was pressuring Bansal to regain the lead when the safety car was deployed again after Emmilio Del Grosso’s car needed recovering.

Bansal slowed the field enough at the restart to ensure the clock ran down and only one lap remained, holding on to win by 0.319s over Lennon – who was later penalised five seconds for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. That dropped him to eighth, one place behind the recovering Van Langendonck. Bearman was promoted to second ahead of Jenzer Motorsport’s Teo Borenstein, while Rocco Coronel beat Savinkov to fourth.

Race two did start under the safety car, with Lennon initially retaining the lead until Van Langendonck slid down his inside at Turn 5 to move ahead.

A wide moment for Lennon over a kerb a couple of laps later helped Van Langendonck to escape and allowed Slater the chance to pass for second. Slater couldn’t do anything about Van Langendonck, who won by 8.138s. Coronel survived first-corner contact with Savinkov to finish a distant fourth after a thrilling late battle with Bansal.

Van Langendonck’s winning margin would be a slightly smaller 7.98s in race three. From a standing start he fell behind Savinkov off the line, but once again claimed the lead on the inside of Turn 5 for the first time.

Following a safety car period after Vittorio Orsini and Tomas Rudokas tangled on lap one, Savinkov ran well wide through the final corner on the restart, putting him under pressure from team-mate Ludovico Busso and giving Van Langendonck the chance to escape out front. Savinkov soon shook off Busso to finish a lonely second, with Busso rounding out the podium after beating the battling Lennon, Alexander Ruta and Bearman.

Results round-up
Race 1 (11 laps)
1 Ary Bansal US Racing 32m27.584s
2 Thomas Bearman Van Amersfoort Racing +1.202s
3 Teo Borenstein Jenzer Motorsport +1.877s
4 Rocco Coronel Van Amersfoort Racing +2.976s
5 Oleksandr Savinkov US Racing +3.527s
6 Alexander Ruta Van Amersfoort Racing +4.142s
7 Dries Van Langendonck Rodin Motorsport +4.414s
8 Ethan Lennon Rodin Motorsport +5.319s
9 Ludovico Busso US Racing +5.478s
10 Noah Killon US Racing +5.494s
Pole: Lennon, 2m05.468s
Fastest lap: Bansal, 2m06.909s

Race 2 (15 laps)
1 Van Langendonck 33m03.718s
2 Slater +8.138s
3 Lennon +10.584s
4 Coronel +20.223s
5 Bansal +20.530s
6 Ruta +21.332s
7 Bearman +22.230s
8 Pedro Lima Van Amersfoort Racing +29.136s
9 Busso +29.303s
10 Borenstein +32.276s
Pole: Lennon, 2m05.752s
FL: Van Langendonck, 2m05.705s

Race 3 (14 laps)
1 Van Langendonck 31m58.707s
2 Savinkov +7.980s
3 Busso +17.656s
4 Lennon +18.145s
5 Ruta +18.768s
6 Bansal +19.209s
7 Bearman +21.880s
8 Slater +22.331s
9 Coronel +23.017s
10 Samuel Ifrid Cram Motorsport +28.709s
Pole: Van Langendonck, 2m05.389s
FL: Van Langendonck, 2m05.429s

Championship standings
1 Van Langendonck 108   2 Bansal 66   3 Savinkov 59   4 Coronel 52   5 Bearman 45   6 Lennon 45   7 Slater 40   8 Ruta 34   9 Arn 21   10 Busso 21

The post Van Langendonck shines in wet Algarve Formula Winter Series races appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

Ean Eyckmans and Rene Lammers will both step up to Eurocup-3 with MP Motorsport this year to continue their rivalry with Thomas Strauven.

Eyckmans and Lammers finished second and fourth in the Spanish Formula 4 championship with MP in 2025 as Campos driver Strauven took the title.

Belgian Eyckmans – son of former Formula 3000 and IndyCar driver Wim – was in his first year of car racing after winning the Richard Mille Young Talent Academy shootout. Dutch driver Lammers, whose father is former Formula 1 driver and Le Mans 24 Hours winner Jan, had a much improved second season in Spanish F4 after coming 13th as a much-anticipated rookie in 2024.

The pair will be joined in MP’s Eurocup-3 line-up by Australian driver Gianmarco Pradel, who came fourth in GB3 last year with Rodin Motorsport after two seasons in Italian F4 with US Racing. A fourth driver is set to be announced soon.

Campos meanwhile has completed its four-car line-up with Strauven and Pradel’s fellow Australian GB3 convert Patrick Heuzenroeder to be joined by Red Bull junior Enzo Tarnvanichkul and former Mercedes protege Alex Powell.

Thai driver Tarnvanichkul will be entering his second year in Eurocup-3 with Campos having come eighth in the 2025 standings with one win. He also won a race in a partial GB3 campaign.

American-Jamaican Powell makes the full-time step up from F4 after coming fifth in the Italian championship with Prema in 2024 and ninth last year with R-ace GP, when he was also runner-up in the United Arab Emirates series to team-mate Emanuele Olivieri. Released from the Mercedes junior programme at the end of 2025, Powell currently sits third in the Formula Regional Middle East Trophy with Pinnacle Motorsport.

Elsewhere, the 2025 Brazilian F4 champion Heitor Dall’Agnol has joined the grid with Palou Motorsport, while Hitech has signed Stefan Bostandjiev, who made the unusual switch from GT racing to single-seaters last year with a dual campaign across GB4 and GB3, finishing 12th in the standings in the former.

American Andre Rodriguez, who contested three rounds of Italian F4, three rounds in Euro 4 and a single weekend of Spanish F4 in his rookie single-seater campaign last year, has become the first driver announced by GRS Team.

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Photo: Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull

Arvid Lindblad hoped for more from his 2025 Formula 2 campaign, even though he did enough to land a promotion to Formula 1.

This was just Lindblad’s third full year in single-seater racing, having stepped up from karting to Formula 4 after his 15th birthday in the middle of 2022.

Rather like his full campaigns in Italian F4 and FIA Formula 3, his F2 season with Campos Racing showed strong early promise. He won the sprint race at round three in Jeddah and triumphed in just his fifth feature race at Barcelona from pole position.

By this point he was third in the championship, just eight points from the lead and ahead of eventual champion Leonardo Fornaroli, but any thoughts of a title challenge would fade and he ended the year sixth in the standings after collecting a third win in the Abu Dhabi sprint race.

“Going into the year, I sort of set goals for myself,” said the 18-year-old, who will drive for Racing Bulls in F1 in 2026. “They weren’t really outcome goals though. I didn’t say I want to finish here in the championship or whatever, because it’s always very difficult to do beforehand.

“And also, in my circumstance, I came into this year having just done one year of F4, one year of F3. Three years ago, I was doing my last race in karting. So I’ve come through the ranks very quickly and I didn’t really set such goals going into the year. But I knew what was possible. Obviously the team did an amazing job with Isack [Hadjar] last year.

“Reflecting back, I’m not entirely happy with how the year has gone. I think there has been a lot of good moments, but I’m not super happy with how it’s gone. I’m very happy that I’ve got the opportunity next year, but, no I would have hoped that it had gone a little bit better.”

Asked where he felt his season had been hampered, he said: “The year was going really well up until Barcelona. We were fast throughout, but I was doing a few too many mistakes, there were some things out of our control, and there was a really nice sort of progression up to that point.

“And then sort of through the remainder of the European leg, we were just slow. We struggled for pace, there was mistakes on my side, and then also a bit on the team. But as a package we weren’t competitive. And there’s still question marks we have on that.

“There’s definitely things that I could have done better to help. But at the end of the day I’m just not happy that we weren’t more competitive for more of the season. I feel like too many times I’ve been competing on Saturday and not on Sunday.”

The post Lindblad “not super happy” with F2 season despite reaching F1 goal appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: James Gasperotti

John Bennett has swapped Van Amersfoort Racing for Trident to keep his place on the Formula 2 grid for 2026.

The British-Irish driver was a surprise addition to the F2 grid for the final two rounds of the 2024 season with VAR having spent all three years of his single-seater career until then racing in GB3, where he was runner-up last year.

Having scored points in his debut feature race in Qatar, Bennett remained with VAR for the full 2025 season, although he scored just a solitary point this time in the Monza feature race.

While VAR has already signed Nico Varrone for next season and with Rafael Villagomez expected to continue alongside him, Bennett has found a new home at Trident as team-mate to Laurens van Hoepen.

“I’m extremely happy to race with Trident Motorsport in the 2026 FIA Formula 2 Championship,” said Bennett. “I am very grateful for this great opportunity and to continue fighting in the second tier. I can’t wait to get on track and achieve excellent results together.”

Team manager Giacomo Ricci added: “We are very pleased to announce that John Bennett will race for Trident Motorsport in the 2026 FIA Formula 2 Championship.

“He is a driver we had the chance to observe during the recently concluded season, where he showed solid development. I am confident that the British driver has all the qualities needed to work well with our technical staff and deliver a competitive campaign.”

The news of Bennett’s signing means that 20 of the 22 seats on the 2026 grid have now been officially filled prior to the start of post-season testing in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

The post John Bennett makes Trident switch to remain in F2 for 2026 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Gabriele Mini will remain on the Formula 2 grid for a second full season in 2026 after securing a seat with MP Motorsport.

The Italian narrowly finished as runner-up in FIA Formula 3 last year behind compatriot Leonardo Fornaroli, and then impressed on his F2 debut with Prema in Baku, scoring a podium in his debut sprint race.

His first full year in the series, also with Prema, started solidly with points in the first five races and a second place in the Monaco sprint race. He went on to add a further sprint race podium at Spa and finish third in the season-ending feature race in Abu Dhabi, ending the year 13th in the standings.

“I’m very excited to be able to join MP Motorsport for my second full season in FIA Formula 2,” said Mini. “Their drivers have been strong rivals all throughout my career in single-seaters, and definitely in F2 as well, so it’s good to be switching to their side for next year.

“I know it’s a Dutch team, but teaming up with MP is some sort of homecoming as well, as their engineering team is led by three highly regarded Italians who have won several titles in Formula 2 and know all about winning.

“I can’t wait to get to work with them and the rest of the team, and head out to Melbourne fully prepared for our first race together.”

After a highly successful karting career, Mini was Italian Formula 4 champion in his first season of car racing in 2020, then concluded a two-year stint in Formula Regional with second in the European championship in 2022.

Guided by Nicolas Todt’s All Road Management, Mini has been part of the junior programme of the Alpine Formula 1 team for the past three years but it is uncertain as to whether this relationship will continue into the future.

“It’s wonderful news that Gabriele will be part of our FIA Formula 2 line-up in 2026,” said Sander Dorsman, MP Motorsport team principal.

“He was a champion in his first season in F4 and a title contender in FREC and F3, so his natural talent is up there with the best. With Gabriele on board, now with a full year’s experience of F2 behind his belt, we aim to consistently challenge for wins in 2026.”

Mini will be team-mate to long-time MP driver Oliver Goethe next year.

The post Gabriele Mini secures MP move for second season of F2 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Joshua Duerksen won the season-ending Abu Dhabi Formula 2 feature race from eighth on the grid for the second year in succession.

There was a split of strategies on the grid with Duerksen joining polesitter Roman Stanek in opting for supersoft rubber, while Jak Crawford and Leonardo Fornaroli went for softs in second and third.

Crawford however had his wheels fitted too late, and was handed a 10-second stop-go penalty before the race had even started.

Stanek retained the lead at the start with Dino Beganovic, also on supersofts, moving up to second ahead of Crawford, who pitted to serve his penalty at the end of the first lap. That promoted Duerksen up to third.

There was a virtual safety car on lap two after Alex Dunne and Victor Martins came together once more, with Cian Shields then collecting Dunne’s car. Dunne was given a 10s penalty for the incident.

The top two of Stanek and Beganovic pitted for their soft tyres at the end of lap seven and then battled for position on their out lap. That helped Duerksen to continue for another lap and then emerge from his stop almost 3s clear of Beganovic.

A further VSC after Montoya stopped a few corners after spinning off became a full-blown safety car, hurting the chances of those drivers who had started on softs and were yet to pit, led by Fornaroli and Arvid Lindblad.

Fornaroli ran wide in the final corner when the race restarted and would soon have to start defending from Lindblad, who eventually got by with around 10 laps to go. Behind, Crawford had managed to pass his nearest rival for second in the championship Richard Verschoor, and overtook Fornaroli just a couple of laps after Lindblad.

Meanwhile, Beganovic together with his Hitech team-mate Luke Browning received a five-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane as he and Stanek tried to follow Duerksen through the slower traffic.

Lindblad and Fornaroli pitted with three laps of the race remaining, with Duerksen then passing Verschoor on track to inherit the lead when Crawford pitted one lap later.

The AIX Racing driver sealed victory by 5.5s over Stanek, whose second place helped Invicta Racing clinch the teams’ title.

Beganovic’s penalty denied him a podium by just 0.2s to Gabriele Mini, who made his first visit to a feature race rostrum.

Oliver Goethe, Rafael Villagomez, Kush Maini and Ritomo Miyata followed in front of Lindblad and Crawford, who set the fastest lap on the final lap as he secured second in the standings, with champion Fornaroli completing a pointless weekend in 11th.

Race results (33 laps)

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Photo: Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull

Newly signed Racing Bulls driver Arvid Lindblad scored his third Formula 2 victory in the Abu Dhabi sprint race, as Campos Racing team-mate Nikola Tsolov netted a maiden podium.

Lindblad held the lead from reversed-grid pole position at the start ahead of Joshua Duerksen, while Victor Martins was slow away from third and fell to fifth, which became sixth later around the first lap after Dino Beganovic had elbowed him wide exiting Turn 7.

Although Lindblad set a new fastest lap on the fifth tour he couldn’t break over a second clear of Duerksen, until a virtual safety car was required on lap eight when John Bennet’s engine appeared to give up in smoky fashion on the approach to Turn 5.

The gap between Lindblad and Duerksen was just half a second after the restart on the following lap, but Duerksen ran wide and off track just a few corners later in Turn 12 and fell to 1.5s behind the leader.

Lindblad soon increased his advantage up above two seconds. He appeared to have dealt with a further VSC interruption a couple of laps from the end that brought the gap down to 1.5s, only for it to then fall below a second on the penultimate lap. In the end, Lindblad held on to win by 0.9s.

Tsolov finished 8.6s further back in third as he finished on the podium on just his third F2 start.

He was never really troubled by Oliver Goethe, who was more preoccupied trying to keep Beganovic at bay. The Hitech driver eventually got by for fourth with a bold move around the Turn 9, despite a big lock-up on the brakes, with six laps remaining.

Jak Crawford spent the first half of the race where he started it in ninth but went on a charge in the closing stages. He passed Gabriele Mini on the outside in the Turn 6 chicane despite some wheel-to-wheel contact, and then edged Mini out onto the kerb exiting Turn 9, which sent the front of the Prema car into the air.

Crawford went on to breeze past Alex Dunne, who had risen from 11th to seventh at the start, before attempting to replicate his Mini move in Turn 6 on Martins. He lost part of his front wing as the pair made contact, but proceeded to pass Martins anyway into Turn 9 to finish sixth.

That strengthens Crawford’s hold on second place in the standings, opening up a three-point margin on Richard Verschoor who finished 12th, just behind Leonardo Fornaroli.

Race results (23 laps)

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Roman Stanek scored his second pole position of the Formula 2 season after denying Jak Crawford in the year’s final qualifying session in Abu Dhabi.

Crawford currently holds second place in the championship with three other drivers able to challenge him, and was fastest after the first runs with a time of 1m37.633s, ahead of Joshua Duerksen and Sebastian Montoya.

Montoya went quicker on his next lap to take over at the top, only for Crawford and then Duerksen to do the same. Crawford would get that time deleted for exceeding track limits, leaving him fourth in the middle of the session, with champion Leonardo Fornaroli separating Duerksen and Montoya in second place and his Invicta Racing team-mate Stanek climbing into fifth.

Newly announced Racing Bulls Formula 1 driver Arvid Lindblad had both of his early laps deleted for track limits offences, but set a new and legal benchmark of 1m37.247s on a new set of tyres with six minutes of the session remaining.

That was quickly bettered by Oliver Goethe, who would later have that time deleted but not before Dino Beganovic had matched it to a thousandth of a second.

Montoya then took another turn on top, only for Crawford to edge him out by 0.007 seconds, before Stanek then went almost two tenths quicker than anyone, posting a 1m36.836s.

Crawford would get within 0.087s of Stanek’s pole time as he took second place on his next attempt, while Fornaroli moved up from sixth to third with a further lap at the chequered flag.

Beganovic also found improvement on his second lap to beat Montoya to fourth, with Goethe putting in a new and legal lap to take sixth. Victor Martins was seventh ahead of Duerksen, with Nikola Tsolov qualifying inside the top 10 for the second time in as many rounds, pipping Campos Racing team-mate Lindblad to ninth.

All three of Crawford’s rivals for second place in the championship qualified outside of the top 10, with Alex Dunne 11th, Richard Verschoor 12th and Luke Browning 17th.

Qualifying results

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Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Red Bull junior Fionn McLaughlin will bridge his jump from Formula 4 to Formula 3 for 2026 with a Formula Regional Oceania campaign.

The 2025 British F4 champion will drive for Hitech, the team he raced for in his maiden year of single-seater racing this year and with which he will step up to F3 next year.

The Irish driver already took three wins in the Formula Winter Series for F4 machinery at the start of this year before claiming five wins on his way to taking the British title.

As a relatively late starter in car racing, the 18-year-old will be racing in F3 in just the second season of his single-seater career, but he will now take in a short stint at the intermediate FRegional level as part of his preparation.

He is the fourth confirmed driver for Hitech’s debut effort in the New Zealand-based FRegional Oceania, which will run for four consecutive weekends through January and February.

His team-mates include Toyota junior Jin Nakamura, who is also part of Hitech’s F3 line-up for next season, as well as Kenato Le, who will feature on the same F3 grid but with rival team ART Grand Prix.

Double World Rally Champion Kalle Rovanpera will also race with the team having already tested a Hitech Formula 2 car ahead of competing in Super Formula next season.

With Freddie Slater and Yevan David also entered with other teams, there are now five 2026 F3 drivers confirmed to race in FRegional Oceania, with New Zealand’s own Louis Sharp also expected to join them.

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Photo: McLaren

McLaren has added Ella Stevens and Ella Hakkinen to its driver development programme and will support two drivers in F1 Academy in 2026.

Ella Lloyd also remains part of the programme and will spend a second season in F1 Academy with Rodin Motorsport next year. Lloyd is currently third in the 2025 standings ahead of this weekend’s final round in Las Vegas, having scored a win at Jeddah and four other podium finishes.

She also raced with Rodin in her sophomore British Formula 4 season this year, coming 14th in the standings after contesting seven of the 10 rounds and taking a podium at Zandvoort.

Stevens will be Lloyd’s 2026 F1 Academy team-mate, in what will be the 19-year-old’s first year racing single-seaters. In September she topped the timesheet in the championship’s inaugural rookie test held at Navarra.

This year she was runner-up in the British Kart Championship’s KZ2 shifter class after coming third in 2024 and fifth in 2023. A long-time protege of Alice Powell, she previously raced internationally in the OK category with Birel ART and the support of Richard Mille in 2022.

Hakkinen is the daughter of McLaren’s two time Formula 1 world champion Mika Hakkinen and the team stated that the 14-year-old will test single-seaters next year “in preparation for 2027”.

She has been racing in the Champions of the Future Academy Program on OK-N class karts where she currently sits fourth in the 2025 standings with two rounds remaining. She previously finished sixth in the same championship’s OK-N Junior class in 2024.

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