Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

AIX Racing’s Cian Shields ended Formula 2’s pre-season test at Barcelona on top on Thursday afternoon.

Only Hitech GP and AIX completed installation laps in the first 27 minutes, with Invicta Racing then heading out. The first laptime came 34 minutes into the three-hour session, a 1m32.188s from AIX’s Emmo Fittipaldi.

Shields swiftly beat him by 0.773s, and Fittipaldi improved to be 0.152s off before Hitech’s drivers laid down their first laptimes. Colton Herta posted a 1m30.912s, then Ritomo Miyata went 0.157s quicker.

Shields got within 0.886s of Miyata’s benchmark, and 43 minutes in Invicta’s Joshua Duerksen became the fifth driver with a laptime to their name as ART Grand Prix, Campos Racing and Rodin Motorsport embarked on installation laps.

On his next atttempt, Duerksen set a 1m30.381s for third place, and Rodin’s Martinius Stenshorne was 0.034s behind with his opening effort. When team-mate Alex Dunne completed his first flying lap, his 1m29.534s made him fastest by 0.221s. Stenshorne then improved to 1m29.960s in third.

Dunne was only on top for a minute, as Invicta’s Rafael Camara edged ahead by 0.099s. But Dunne responded, reclaiming first place by 0.073s. More than half of the field was now active, and Herta set a personal best in fifth, 0.6s off the pace.

Campos’s line-up posted their first flying laps 57 minutes in, with Noel Leon beating Nikola Tsolov to sixth. Tsolov found more pace on his next two laps, and a 1m29.740s put him third.

Hour two began with the first laptimes from ART GP’s drivers, which sent them straight to the top. Kush Maini set a 1m28.582s to lead Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak by 0.291s, as Stenshorne improved in seventh. DAMS’ Roman Bilinski and the Dutch teams MP Motorsport and Van Amersfoort Racing had still not left their garages.

With the track more rubbered in, those going straight into flying laps could extract more pace and Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen went third fastest, 0.553s off Maini, five minutes into hour two as most drivers embarked on long runs.

Van Hoepen’s team-mate John Bennett and Prema’s Sebastian Montoya soon appeared on the timesheet, and Nico Varrone departed VAR’s garage while Rafael Villagomez remained there all afternoon.

Tsolov and Leon improved in sixth and eighth at the 70-minute mark, and the first laptime from a DAMS driver appeared.

It took another seven minutes for MP’s duo and Bilinski to finally set timed laps, with the latter taking 12th place. Approaching the session’s halfway mark, 20 drivers were on track and Varrone went ninth fastest with his first flying lap.

Camara rose from fifth to third with 75 minutes to go, 0.059s ahead of van Hoepen, and the long runs concluded as hour two ended.

Varrone started racking up laps, but eventually only he and Herta were on track and then he was alone with 45 minutes to go before Hitech’s drivers headed back out. Four minutes on Varrone pitted, and later AIX’s drivers left the pits.

Shields lowered the pace by 1.911s with 33 minutes remaining, shooting up from 20th place. Fittipaldi went fastest by 0.32s three minutes later, and both pitted.

Several drivers started new runs, while Shields returned to track for a few laps and reclaimed top spot by 0.082s with 22 minutes left of the test.

The track got busier, and two improvements lifted Prema’s Mari Boya to fifth, 2.673s off Shields, 14 minutes from the end.

Shield’s advantage was cut to 0.039s by Leon four minutes after that, and Herta and Miyata then set a 1m27.869s and 1m28.788s respectively to rise to fourth and sixth.

Red flags waved when van Hoepen stopped on the pit straight, and there was scant action in the three minutes left after that.

Afternoon session results

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Invicta Racing’s Rafael Camara was quickest again on the final morning of Formula 2’s pre-season test at Barcelona.

The three-hour session had a quiet first 25 minutes in which only Campos Racing’s drivers had set laps at a representative pace. Noel Leon, having posted a 1m25.173s, led Nikola Tsolov by 0.516 seconds and only nine drivers had been on track.

Tsolov soon moved ahead by 0.025s, but Leon improved to 1m23.769s as the pair circulated on their own.

The next driver to set a flying lap was Hitech GP’s Ritomo Miyata, 37 minutes in, and his 1m26.617s was swiftly bettered by team-mate Colton Herta and then ART Grand Prix’s drivers. Kush Maini set a 1m25.276s to sit third, 0.145s faster than Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak.

When Camara’s first flying lap came a few minutes later, he was 2.598s off the pace in sixth. He made a gain of 0.826s and one position next time around.

Tsolov then moved back ahead of Leon by 0.115s, Invicta’s Joshua Duerksen jumped to third with a lap 0.558s off Tsolov’s 1m23.654s and there was lots of change from seventh place downwards as many drivers lapped at pace for the first time.

Trident’s John Bennett was without any running at the end of hour one, when the track was empty due to red flags caused by Van Amersfoort Racing’s Nico Varrone going off at the last corner.

Seventh place had been snatched by Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne just before the interruption, and after the restart Inthraphuvasak and Maini improved in third and fourth.

DAMS’ Dino Beganovic briefly held sixth before being bettered by MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe, who was 1.512s off the pace, and at the 72-minute mark VAR’s Rafael Villagomez had a final corner off that led to a 28-minute red flag period.

Bennett headed out when green flags waved but did not record a flying lap before Leon stopped on track, triggering another stoppage.

With 66 minutes remaining, Camara posted a 1m23.978s to take third, and DAMS’ Roman Bilinski became the last driver within a second of the pace in eighth. Beganovic then posted a 1m25.058s to hold fourth before Prema’s Mari Boya lapped 0.172s off Tsolov’s benchmark. Miyata and Herta also improved in the top 10, and a second now split the top 13.

Most drivers returned to the pits after that, and on a quieter track MP’s Gabriele Mini became Tsolov’s closest rival with a lap 0.067s off the long-standing best.

Long runs were more frequent in the final hour, meaning fewer personal bests, but with 51 minutes to go Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen jumped from 18th to second as he outpaced Mini by 0.05s. Bennett went quickest in sector two in his next lap, climbing from 19th to 10th, then a minute later Herta got within 0.097s of Tsolov in fourth and Miyata improved to seventh.

The track became quieter again, but Camara stayed out and with 45 minutes left of the session laid down a 1m23.252s. Leon bettered Tsolov too, but was 0.274s off the new time to beat. Van Hoepen was now fourth, ahead of Mini and Herta in an order that went unchanged.

Morning session results

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Photo: Dom Gibbons

Joshua Duerksen had a big gap at the top on the second afternoon of Formula 2 pre-season testing as the focus switched to long runs.

Only installation laps were completed in the first 15 minutes of the three-hour session at Barcelona, and Rodin Motorsport’s Martinius Stenshorne was first to lay down laptimes.

He was beaten 23 minutes in by Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov, who lapped in the 1m30s twice to lead Cian Shields (AIX Racing), Stenshorne and Emmo Fittipaldi (AIX).

Invicta Racing’s Rafael Camara was the fifth driver to begin a proper run, and shot to the top with a 1m29.544s as DAMS’ Dino Beganovic slotted into fourth.

Tsolov got within 0.332s of Camara approaching the half-hour mark, and Stenshorne demoted Beganovic to fifth with a 1m30.595s. ART Grand Prix’s Kush Maini soon bettered Beganovic too, then 35 minutes in the first flying lap from Invicta driver Duerksen came in. A 1m27.463s made him fastest by 2.081 seconds.

Two minutes later, Hitech GP’s Colton Herta rose to fourth, posting a 1m30.059s, and half of the field was active. Beganovic moved up a spot to sixth, but was demoted again as Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak’s opening effort at pace put him ahead by 0.05s. The ART GP driver found more pace, setting a 1m30.223s to take fifth as Duerksen pitted.

Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen was next to enter the top five, going 0.105s faster than Inthraphuvasak. Few improved while in the middle of long runs.

Eight drivers were without laptimes entering hour two. Trident’s John Bennett and Campos’s Noel Leon soon logged their first ones, then Prema’s Sebastian Montoya and Mari Boya appeared on the timesheet 72 minutes in.

MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe and Gabriele Mini, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Nico Varrone and Rodin’s Alex Dunne had not even left the pits, and Dunne was without laptimes from the morning as they were all deleted due to his car being underweight.

Once Mini and Goethe did head out, they still did not record any laptimes before Herta brought out red flags approaching the session’s halfway point by going off at turn four.

Action resumed with 77 minutes left, and it took a further seven minutes before MP’s drivers were back on track. Goethe’s first flying lap, a 1m30.153s, put him sixth and Mini was 0.211s behind in eighth as Duerksen headed out for the first time in 48 minutes.

He began the final hour by lowering the pace to 1m25.363s to sit 4.181s ahead. Dunne left the pits, Varrone did too with 51 minutes to go, and shortly after Mini improved to fourth with a 1m30.022s.

Dunne’s first flying lap came with 47 minutes remaining, and made him Duerksen’s closest rival despite being 4.12s off the pace. Inthraphuvasak became the fourth driver to lap sub-1m30s four minutes later, with scant improvements thereon.

Camara reclaimed second place 23 minutes from the end, and set another personal best next time by to get within 1.708s of Duerksen. Fittipaldi was starting a run at the same time, and once up to pace a 1m29.520s earned him fourth by 0.075s.

Boya caused a red flag period after that, and most drivers headed out when green flags returned. Only Shields improved, rising from 12th to sixth.

Afternoon session results

The post Duerksen on top, F2 paddock switches focus to long runs in afternoon appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Invicta Racing’s Rafael Camara was quickest as just 0.067 seconds split the top five on the second morning of Formula 2 pre-season testing at Barcelona.

The three-hour session was disrupted seven minutes in when ART Grand Prix’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak spun before anyone had set laptimes.

Once green flags waved again, the fielded head out and after 28 minutes it was DAMS’ Dino Beganovic who led the way with a 1m25.877s. Trident’s John Bennett and Laurens van Hoepen were his closest rivals, 0.072 and 0.275 seconds behind. Six drivers had completed no running at that point.

Two minutes later, van Hoepen bettered Beganovic by 0.066s, and Campos Racing’s drivers set their first flying laps. Nikola Tsolov slotted into fifth, between Rodin Motorsport’s Martinius Stenshorne and Alex Dunne, and Noel Leon went eighth fastest behind DAMS’ Roman Bilinski. Prema’s Mari Boya was the only other driver within a second of the pace.

Leon improved to 1m26.441s to move into fourth, then the first laps at a representative pace appeared from MP Motorsport’s drivers and Prema’s Sebastian Montoya. He went straight into fifth place, then MP’s Gabriele Mini set a 1m25.346s to lower the pace by 0.456s. When his team-mate Oliver Goethe crossed the line, he matched Leon’s laptime in sixth.

Prema’s duo responded, with Montoya and then Boya occupying fifth in quick succession 38 minutes in. They soon each lost two positions though as Goethe got within 0.015s of Mini, Bennett improved to 1m25.663s in third and ART GP’s Kush Maini took fifth place with a 1m25.852s.

The first flying laps from Hitech GP’s drivers were set 10 minutes later, as van Hoepen went quickest in all three sectors to post a new 1m24.210s benchmark. Most of the field was in the pits, but Stenshorne and Dunne stayed on track and personal bests put them fourth and eighth.

There was a brief red flag period towards the end of hour one triggered by Bennett spinning. Boya led the field back out, and at the 65-minute mark he laid down a 1m24.454s that slashed van Hoepen’s gap to 0.244s. Montoya was a further 0.563s back, then a flurry of improvements came in.

Maini outpaced van Hoepen by 0.267s, just before Goethe set a 1m23.793s to go quickest by 0.15s. Mini returned to the top four with a 1m24.237s, Montoya improved again in sixth and Camara sat seventh.

Before he was able to find more pace, Mini stopped on track at turn 12 and the session was red-flagged for 17 minutes. As the session half of the morning began, Stenshorne posted a 1m24.159s to rise from eighth to third.

Three minutes later, a 1m23.646s meant Dunne very briefly held top spot before Camara went quicker by 0.026s with a laptime that would go unbeaten. Maini made a small gain in fourth, Inthraphuvasak was now fifth, Bennett improved in eighth and Invicta’s Joshua Duerksen finally left the pits for the first time but would never lap at pace.

Van Hoepen became the fifth driver to lap sub-1m24s with 76 minutes to go, then was bettered by 0.015s as Hitech’s Colton Herta jumped the order from 21st where team-mate Ritomo Miyata now languished.

As the track became quiet, Bennett found more pace and a new personal best left him in third, 0.034s shy of Camara.

Inthraphuvasak got within 0.018s of the benchmark laptime with 64 minutes left of the session as more drivers headed out, and Stenshorne completed a top five now split by 0.067s.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Nico Varrone went sixth fastest as the final hour began, 0.13s off the top, and later on there was a lengthy red flag interruption brought about Leon spinning into the gravel at turn nine. Although the track was busy after that, only one driver improved in the last half-hour.

Morning session results

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Campos Racing’s Noel Leon topped the timesheet in the afternoon on day one of Formula 2 pre-season testing at Barcelona.

AIX Racing’s Cian Shields was first to record a flying lap seven minutes in, and was swiftly beaten by Rodin Motorsport’s morning pace-setter Martinius Stenshorne who posted a 1m25.930s. His team-mate Alex Dunne got within 0.14 seconds of that two minutes later to sit second, but Stenshorne then grew his gap to 0.359s.

Following a cooldown lap, Dunne trimmed Stenshorne’s advantage to 0.17s, and after 15 minutes the pair had a 1.8s gap to AIX’s drivers in third and fourth. The laptimes of Campos and Prema’s line-ups were several seconds off.

Invicta Racing’s Joshua Duerksen became Rodin’s closest rival 22 minutes in, posting a 1m26.554s. It took a further 10 minutes of driving for him to improve further, to 1m26.406s, and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Nico Varrone rose to fourth at the 34-minute mark. His team-mate Rafael Villagomez demoted Shields to sixth place eight minutes later.

The track was quiet thereon, and hour one of three ended with ART Grand Prix, DAMS, Hitech GP, MP Motorsport and Trident’s drivers still yet to lap at pace.

Duerksen set a new personal best 68 minutes in, leaving him 0.597s off Stenshorne’s 1m25.712s benchmark. DAMS had sent its drivers out for flying laps, with Hitech and MP doing so 10 minutes after that.

A 1m26.278s put Hitech’s Ritomo Miyata third, team-mate Colton Herta separated VAR’s drivers in sixth and Invicta’s Rafael Camara went eighth with a first effort 1.59s off the pace.

The track became quiet again, and Duerksen was in a group who headed out with 65 minutes to go. Before setting a lap, he halted running by spinning at turn three.

Action resumed with 58 minutes remaining, and ART GP’s drivers laid down their first flying laps. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak set a 1m26.504s in fifth with 46 minutes left, and team-mate Kush Maini slotted into 11th.

A few minutes later, Prema’s Mari Boya and Leon improved to fifth and sixth with 1m26.8s laps, then Duerksen lowered the pace to 1m25.274s before most pf the field returned to the pits.

On the next runs, a flurry of personal bests appeared around half an hour from the end. Leon got within 0.325s of Duerksen and Villagomez was fifth, then Miyata beat Leon by 0.016s, Campos’s Nikola Tsolov jumped from 14th to sixth and Herta also bettered Villagomez as a second now split the top eight.

Camara went sixth fastest five minutes later, setting a 1m25.928s, followed by Trident becoming the last team to log laps at a representative pace.

The final runs had begun for some drivers with 15 minutes left, and Duerksen sat third two minutes after that as Leon went purple in every sector to set a 1m24.370s and lead Varrone (up from 13th) by 0.688s.

Inthraphuvasak later improved to sixth, 1.432s off Leon’s benchmark, and the day was ended eight minutes early by Prema’s Sebastian Montoya entering the gravel at turn one.

Additional reporting by Jacob Awcock

Afteroon session results

The post Leon leads the way at Barcelona on first afternoon of F2 testing appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Rodin Motorsport’s Martinius Stenshorne was quickest on Formula 2’s first morning of pre-season testing at Barcelona.

Cool temperatures meant only installation laps were completed early on, with Van Amersfoort Racing’s John Bennett the last to log on 63 minutes into the three-hour run time.

MP Motorsport’s duo headed back out 20 minutes after that, and traded first place as they racked up laps. Oliver Goethe set a 1m26.040s to lead team-mate Gabriele Mini by 0.146 seconds before the pair pitted.

Hitech GP and Prema sent their drivers out with 79 minutes to go, and Invicta Racing’s Joshua Duerksen was on track too. DAMS and Rodin soon joined in starting their first runs, and Duerksen posted a 1m27.420s with 71 minutes remaining to occupy third place.

He lost that two minutes later to Hitech’s Ritomo Miyata who set a 1m26.802s, with team-mate Colton Herta in sixth behind Prema’s Sebastian Montoya. More than half of the field had now recorded laptimes, and Duerksen improved but was 0.043s slower than Miyata.

A few moments later, Stenshorne’s first flying lap came in and he bettered Miyata by 0.077s. Rodin team-mate Alex Dunne then took over third, lapping 0.51s off Goethe’s benchmark.

Prema’s Mari Boya was next to be third, beating Dunne by 0.031s with a 1m26.519s set with 66 minutes to go. Miyata swiftly went 0.003s faster than Boya, and when Stenshorne and Dunne crossed the line they returned to third and fourth. Stenshorne got within 0.146s of Goethe, and was 0.027s ahead of Dunne.

ART Grand Prix’s drivers’ first laptimes came in then, and at the end of hour two Trident and AIX Racing’s line-ups finally did the same.

DAMS’ Dino Beganovic set a 1m26.420s to rise from eighth to fifth, then with 58 minutes remaining Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov stopped at turn three and triggered a seven-minute red flag period.

When action resumed, Tsolov, team-mate Noel Leon and Invicta’s Rafael Camara headed out as they were yet to put times on the board.

With 41 minutes to go, Leon went fifth fastest with a 1m26.343s and Tsolov slotted into ninth as most drivers who had left the pitlane returned to it.

The next runs began with 26 minutes left on the session clock, and Mini bettered Goethe’s long-standing benchmark by 0.438s. Tsolov got within 0.1s of him, and Leon improved to 1m26.190s in fourth.

Goethe set a new personal best with 19 minutes remaining, but his 1m25.829s soon left him fourth as Leon beat him by 0.014s with his next lap.

Beganovic returned to fifth place five minutes from the end, lapping sub-1m26s, but was down to sixth when Stenshorne crossed the line in 1m25.437s to go quickest by 0.165s.

Dunne lapped 0.015s shy of that with two minutes left of the session, securing Rodin a one-two and demoting Tsolov and Leon to fourth and fifth.

Six drivers were on track at the chequered flag, a second covered the top seven and AIX’s Cian Sheilds ended the morning without a representative laptime.

Additional reporting by Jacob Awcock

Morning session results

The post Stenshorne starts F2 pre-season testing on top at Barcelona appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Rafael Villagomez will remain with Van Amersfoort Racing in Formula 2 for a third season, completing the 2026 grid.

The 24-year-old Mexican has been racing for the Dutch team since 2021, when he was part of its Euroformula line-up. He came eighth in that championship with five podiums, then moved across to VAR’s FIA Formula 3 Championship line-up.

Villagomez already had experience on the Formula 1 support bill, having raced for HWA Racelab in FIA F3’s 2021 season and failing to score. In both of the following campaigns with VAR, he scored two points and came 25th in the standings.

The step up to F2 led to improved form, with 13 points scored and a best finish of seventh achieved in Villagomez’s rookie season. That put him 24th in the standings, and he climbed 10 places in 2025 by making the podium in two sprint races and finishing fourth in a feature race.

“I’m extremely excited and grateful to be staying another year in F2 with VAR,” said Villagomez. “Together with the team, we finished the season strongly which gives me great confidence heading into the new year. I can’t wait to get back on track, and work with the team to achieve even stronger results in the upcoming season.”

This year he will be team-mate to single-seater returnee Nico Varrone, who has raced in sportscars’ top Hypercar prototype class.

“We’re very happy to continue with Rafael for 2026. Over the past seasons, he’s shown strong commitment and a clear step forward in performance,” said VAR’s team principal Brad Joyce.

“The podiums in Barcelona and Qatar were defining moments, but more importantly, they reflect the progress we’ve made together. We’re looking forward to building on that momentum and fighting for the top steps of the podium together.”

The post Rafael Villagomez stays with Van Amersfoort Racing in F2 for third year appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Kalle Rovanpera

Junior single-seaters is a place in motorsport where drivers race on the way to becoming professionals, but this year there are several established names making the intruiging step of joining the feeder series fold 

There are several events in motorsport that hold appeal across the globe, and across all categories and disciplines, such as the Le Mans 24 Hours or Indianapolis 500. The opportunity to enter those, particularly for drivers who are not usually in sportscars or IndyCar, is not passed up.

Since junior single-seaters is a place for learning, featuring teams of less experienced and established talents on and off track, there is usually little appeal for professional drivers to spend their time in it. While the smaller cars of Formula Regional and Formula 4 get to race around the streets of Macau, meaning drivers from higher up the ladder have to step down a rung or two to take on its challenge, drivers from top-tier racing don’t do the same even if the Macau Grand Prix is on their bucket list.

When proven stars of motorsport do make junior single-seater comebacks, it’s usually long after their professional careers ended. For example, former CART and Formula 1 driver Jan Magnussen raced in the 2021 Formula Ford Festival and 2024 Walter Hayes Trophy to effectively celebrate how much fun he had en route to winning the FFord Festival back in 1992.

This year it’s not retired talents but active pros at the peak of their careers headed to junior single-seaters, and for full programmes rather than cameos. So what should be made of their decision to race ‘below’ their level?

Ryan Wood

Still only 22, Wood started off in sportscars then has become a tin-top star in Australia. He came third in the second-tier Super2 Series in 2023 as a Walkinshaw Andretti United driver, and the team promoted him to its Australian Supercars line-up for 2024. Two fourth places were the best results of his rookie campaign, while in 2025 he got through the title fight’s first cutoff stage to come 10th in the points table. He won one race, finished third six times, and started on pole thrice.

Top-tier talents at Toyota Racing Series/FRegional Oceania’s New Zealand GP

This weekend he makes his single-seater debut in Formula Regional Oceania, and as a Kiwi he has been frank that his home country’s biggest championship for open-wheel cars has been something he’s followed since childhood and always had aspirations to compete in. His Supercars team will swap its Fords for Toyotas this year, and the brand’s part in organising FRegional Oceania opened the door for Wood to turn a dream into reality.

Since he is racing for his own merits, rather than to further his career, gain crucial experience or prove himself against new opposition, Wood may be happy to take risks and have fun in his four weekends with MTEC Motorsport and that should make him an exciting addition to the grid.

Kalle Rovanpera

Another total newcomer to single-seaters, Rovanpera also has Toyota connections to thank for his FRegional Oceania programme with Hitech GP. The team is now entering the second year of its collaboration with Toyota (and using its name), while the 25-year-old Finn has driven a Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 to 18 wins and two titles in the World Rally Championship.

He is headed to New Zealand to build up as much mileage and understanding of wheel-to-wheel action as possible before he heads to Japan’s top-tier Super Formula championship in three months’ time.

Having one of motorsport’s biggest names outside of F1 racing in FRegional is an amazing headline, but results may be secondary to registering in-car improvements each race. That Rovanpera has won so much at such a young age is due to a winning mindset and relying on his natural driving style, but the WRC’s new tyre compound last year unsettled the latter, so if he doesn’t start on the right foot down under it might be a very introspective campaign rather than ‘one to watch’.

As long as Rovanpera shares his journey with media and fans, it will still be a fascinating rallying to racing move to follow.

Photo: Red Bull

Colton Herta

The first reaction to Herta’s presence in Formula 2 this year: is it fair? That’s not in relation to the rest of the field having to go up against one of the best drivers IndyCar has had this decade, but rather the fact that this move has been required for him to earn a FIA superlicense and be eligible to race for Cadillac in F1 next year.

IndyCar is grossly undermarked in the superlicense points system, and Herta has to make the top eight in the F2 standings with Hitech to get the document he so obviously already deserves. He won two races and claimed three poles as an IndyCar rookie in 2019, came third in the 2020 standings and the 25-year-old left that paddock with nine race victories and the 2024 championship runner-up spot to his name.

While it’s outrageous the F2 move is required, it is the only way for a driver to gather experience of many F1 tracks in high-downforce machinery without racing in F1 itself so it can be considered perfect preparation for his 2027 plans.

As for once Herta is seen on track, it should be thrilling. He’s a great driver to work with, he has a racing style that is great to watch, and it will be really interesting to see how applicable his tyre management experience from IndyCar is to F2.

Nico Varrone

Like Herta, Varrone does have junior single-seater experience in Europe already but most of what he faces in F2 will be brand new or at least feel it. He did contest F2 post-season testing in 2024, so has some car experience to count on but he’s spent the last few years racing sportscars.

The Argentinian was 2023 World Endurance champion and Le Mans 24H winner in the LMGTE Am class, as well as LMP3 class winner in IMSA’s Daytona 24H race, was part of the crew that came fourth in the 2024 Le Mans 24H’s LMP2 class, then he stepped up to the top Hypercar class for prototype cars last year.

Photo: Paola Depalmas

Some of the team-mates he has been partnered with in endurance racing have been immensely experienced and great to learn from, and the long stints mean Varrone has his own extensive knowledge now of brake and tyre management. Those two factors become increasingly key in F2 as the sole single-seater category featuring compulsory pitstops at every event, so races may be where Varrone shines rather than qualifying.

As a journalist, some more insight from Varrone about the motivations and ambitions behind his F2 move is currently needed. Regardless, it will be fun to delve through the data and quotes of the season to come and see the impact he has on his team Van Amersfoort Racing’s competitivity.

Further reading
The top-tier champions who stepped down to junior single-seaters

The post First thoughts on the big racing names headed to junior single-seaters appeared first on Formula Scout.

The correlation between pace and results was missing once again with the Dallara F2 2024 for some this year, but the bigger story was whether anyone in the field really had the potential to beat Leonardo Fornaroli

When Formula Scout came to review the 2024 Formula 2 season, the first using a new car, the easiest way to sum up the relationship between pace and points was “How talent shone through in an F2 season of statistical quirks”.

The same applies to 2025, where the fastest driver in the field came 11th in the standings. And he knew he was fastest.

Invicta Racing was the team to beat with the Dallara F2 2024, and did the title double again as rookie Leonardo Fornaroli was crowned champion and Roman Stanek scored over 100 points too down in 10th in the table.

Over the 27-race season, Fornaroli amassed twice as many points as his team-mate and 36 more than anyone else. The same gap split second to fifth in the standings. A record-equalling 14 rounds led to 10 drivers scoring a century of points, a tally only matched in 2020 and beaten in 2022, but Fornaroli’s total was only the 17th highest haul in GP2/F2 history.

Halfway through the latest campaign, Formula Scout delved into the data and Stanek’s quote “in F2 qualifying and the race, they are two different sports” headlined the analysis due to the disparity between the two numerical threads.

And rather than start now with comparing Fornaroli to his rivals, we’ll look at Stanek’s season as the pace and results of a ‘weaker’ driver in a line-up is a good way of demonstrating how competitive their team and their lead driver is.

Invicta was fifth in the teams’ standings at the season’s halfway point, 37 points behind championship leaders Campos Racing, with Fornaroli and Stanek fourth and 11th in the points table. Across the first seven rounds, they were on average the third and ninth fastest drivers in the field, then 11th and 16th on race pace.

Absolute pace

Stanek scored three-and-a-half times as many points in the season’s second half, his tally actually beating what Fornaroli achieved in the first half of the season. At the halfway point, Stanek had seven feature race points while Fornaroli had 65.

In the second half of 2025, Stanek scored 65 feature race points and Fornaroli netted 81. That 16-point difference was smaller than the advantage title rivals Jak Crawford at DAMS (61), Richard Verschoor at MP Motorsport (18) and Alex Dunne at Rodin Motorsport (36) had, but larger than Luke Browning’s three-point outscoring of team-mate Dino Beganovic at Hitech GP.

Having a competitive team-mate was an advantage, since Invicta and Hitech’s duos all scored 65 or more points and the teams rose to first and second in the standings. Crawford, AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen and Prema’s Gabriele Mini were the only other drivers to exceed 37 points in the season’s second half, with 67, 62 and 41 respectively.

Invicta’s team principal James Robinson told Formula Scout about Stanek’s input in the team’s competitiveness, which was key to Fornaroli’s title bid, saying “his technical understanding of the vehicle is really second-to-none”.

By the end of the year, after Stanek had taken two poles which were converted into second places and won the feature race at Spa-Francorchamps, and victories in three sprint races and one feature race had gone to Fornaroli, the pair were on average the second and fourth fastest drivers of 2025 on single-lap pace (with Fornaroli ahead) and eighth and 14th on race pace.

The improvement in results at Invicta, making it the team to beat, were backed up by quotes from the Silverstone sprint race which kicked off the second half of the campaign. Fornaroli claimed his first win, and Stanek joined him on the podium.

“We changed massively,” said Stanek. “Mainly the work is done outside of the race track, then you just come on the race and prepare it. We did a lot of work behind the scenes, from simulator to some mental health and how to drive a race car. I’ve been missing… not some information, but some little details that helped me in the races, especially.”

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

He added that “although it’s my third season in F2, every day you keep learning new and new stuff” and that the team had “improved a lot”.

Fornaroli was less insightful about the team’s pace, with his favourite phrase over the year being “it means nothing”. What he meant was that strong results or the points lead, which he took in round nine at Spa, couldn’t be taken for granted.

He was analytical about individual races in conversation, primarily because that’s the info people asked for after each of his four wins, but after winning the Spa sprint race he did discuss his progress as a rookie.

“Now that I have more races in my back, as well as testing, I understood more about the tyres. At the start, it was not easy because compared to Formula 3 it’s quite different. But the biggest step forward I did [was] in Silverstone, so there I learned a lot and it was a very similar situation [to winning today].”

That first win, after becoming 2024 FIA F3 champion with no victories, was “a weight lifted” and a “confidence boost” that enabled Fornaroli to further raise his game.

Fornaroli and Stanek’s working relationship actually extended back to 2022, with both racing for Trident for three years but always in different championships, and they credited it frequently during the season for their collective strength as a line-up.

Crawford came second in F2 this year, and despite the continuity of racing for DAMS faced blind alleys on set-up and had to rely on individual brilliance to bring home big results. He scored 88 points in the season’s first half, and 87 in the second.

After winning the wet Silverstone feature race, a points-free Spa weekend followed. Then Crawford finished third in both races at the Hungaroring, but a points-free weekend at Monza followed. Then he won the Baku feature race from pole, but scored only one point at Losail.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Crawford knew Silverstone would be a “a track that would suit our car”, and expanded on how circuit comparability impacted consistency.

“We find every weekend quite different, and always different challenges, of course. I mean it’s same for everyone, but we seemed to already last year with the team struggle a bit more with consistency. And this year it’s been a lot better, but it hasn’t been consistently at the front, it’s been kind of consistently in the top 10. I think we’re improving.”

At the Hungaroring he qualified third, rose from eighth to third in the sprint race then maintained his position behind the Invicta duo in the feature race. The third-year F2 driver called his best qualifying lap “one of the best laps I’ve done in F2”, despite it not delivering pole, and cited previous instances of post-practice set-up adjustments hampering his qualifying.

Invicta’s drivers were slowest in Monza practice and Crawford was ninth, behind team-mate Kush Maini. In qualifying, Browning took pole, Maini showed DAMS’ potential by pipping Stanek to second, Fornaroli was eighth and Crawford was in 11th with engine issues that left him way off the pace in the races too.

Since several of Crawford’s bad weekends occurred in the first of back-to-back rounds where he then bounced back, he said “I feel like we’ve done a great job to look past the bad, until we feel like we need to look back at it and make adjustments”. Whether that approach truly helped is unknown, but even if he had been consistent Crawford felt the title wasn’t likely.

“It’s hard to beat when the team [Invicta] and also Leo have done a great job. So anyways, even at our best, it would have been very difficult still. We just missed a little bit. Maybe Invicta were the most consistent team, especially when it came to qualifying. I feel like me, Richard and Luke, we were all a bit inconsistent. And it just comes down to a bit the car.

“Kind of [on] the new car that we’ve had since last year, it’s more tricky to get into the window. I feel like the tyres always have been very tricky to get in the correct window. So those two things, if you’re not getting it right every time, you pay the price.”

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Ahead of Monza, Verschoor sought improved pace by introducing a blander livery that weighed less in paint. According to F2’s own info, he was the tallest driver on the grid in 2025. Therefore his car spent many races far above the minimum weight.

He was 24 points clear at the top halfway through the season, sixth on absolute pace and second on race pace, and ended the year seventh and first on those two metrics. His performances earned him McLaren Formula 1 junior status alongside Fornaroli, and unlike the champion he has a confirmed racing programme for 2026 as he heads to the European Le Mans Series.

But having led the way on 114 points, he only scored 56 more after that despite eight successive points-scoring races. His sole podium was victory in the Losail sprint race. That result made him the highest-scoring driver in sprint races this year, but Fornaroli, Crawford and Browning were far ahead with their feature race tallies. While his single-lap pace only worsened slightly after the Red Bull Ring round in summer, where he claimed his third win, that proved costly while others improved.

He never qualified on pole, but having an average starting spot on Sundays of 6.86, with a median of fifth place since 19th in Imola was his only time outside of the top 10, still proved enough to bring in the points in the season’s first half. His average starting spot was 10.71 in the second half, where Silverstone and Losail were the only tracks where he was in the top 10.

There was some irony that at Monza his new livery did seem to help, as he was second fastest in qualifying before he had his fastest lap deleted for triggering a red flag period when he crashed out while in clean air.

To some degree, poor qualifying form meant more opporunities to rise up the order in races. But he actually proved better at that in the season’s first half, improving his position in nine out of 13 races. The Losail win was his eighth in F2, making him the joint fifth most successful driver in GP2/F2 history. It meant “not much” for a driver with over 125 starts.

Fornaroli won the title the next day, and the unravelling of Verschoor’s title attack appeared to be of his own making as team-mate Oliver Goethe was in the top 10 five out of seven times in the season’s second half and his average starting spot on Sundays was 9.14.

Qualifying

Goethe served three-place grid penalties in both Losail races for an impeding violation in qualifying, which he had topped. That meant “a huge amount” to Goethe, after working hard through the season to improve his qualifying, and Verschoor was 0.678s back in 10th. MP and Invicta were the only two teams to get both of their cars into the top 10, and while Goethe exited the weekend with no points he was fifth in both races of the Abu Dhabi season finale while Verschoor scored nothing.

“Yesterday I just didn’t do a good job. I also apologised to the team of course for that. My team-mate did a phenomenal job,” Verschoor said after his Losail win.

“He showed that he’s really quick and that the car is very good around here. And I think we showed it again today in the race. For sure the car is very competitive on this kind of track. Also next week, I know that we are good as well in Abu Dhabi. So it’s up to me to perform. Yesterday I could just feel that – I’m not someone that is driving at all in the break.

“I haven’t been in a race car for two months, and I think that’s just not really smart. Even though it’s very expensive to drive, it’s just not smart because I could feel the difficulty in putting the lap together.”

For a driver in his fifth F2 campaign, it was a very odd remark. After the big break before the Middle Eastern rounds in the previous three seasons, he had returned to action with a sprint race podium each time. His expectation of performing strongly at Yas Marina Circuit was based on a run of podiums there since 2022, including third place and fastest lap in last year’s feature race with the then-new Dallara F2 2024 car.

“I just didn’t have the right feeling with the car [at Losail]. Even though I could feel that there was a lot of potential, I struggled to put everything together, to nail every corner, and I only did five laps in free practice because my engine broke. I had to change engine after FP. So that was also not helping. It just didn’t click. Sometimes you have those kind of sessions, and it was definitely up to me.”

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Based on his own comments, even with a competitive car Verschoor was not getting in positions to remain a rival to Fornaroli.

He also didn’t want to take credit for Goethe’s improving over his first full F2 season, after his team-mate said “I try to learn as much as I can from” Verschoor. But he revealed they spent lots of time together away from the track, and was full of praise:

“I always said that he’s a super fast driver. He just couldn’t really show his potential straight away, but if you see the learning slope that he did, it’s just incredible. Being on pole yesterday I think was something no one was really expecting of him, but he pulled it off.”

That Invicta’s line-up entered 2025 with similar experience disparity, but the roles were reversed in terms of who was doing the late-season catching up to the lead driver’s performance level, further marks out Fornaroli as 2025’s only title-capable driver.

But what about Browning, Dunne, or even Campos’s Arvid Lindblad? Browning came fourth in the standings, but second was within reach, Dunne was Verschoor’s closest rival at the halfway mark and Lindblad’s performances earned him an F1 seat.

Lindblad can be ruled out, impressive as he was in his rookie season, as he was behind team-mate Pepe Marti in the standings when the Spanish sophomore ended his campaign two rounds early to step up to Formula E with Cupra Kiro.

“His decision to step away from F2 and commit fully to our FE project is a real statement of intent,” said the team’s chief operating officer Russell O’Hagan, and he was right. It was a cannily timed move, as Marti was a Red Bull junior like Lindblad but not getting any F1 test time or free practice call-ups like his team-mate was. If beating him wasn’t putting him contention for a 2026 Racing Bulls berth, and Ayumu Iwasa’s title-winning Super Formula season wasn’t enough to be picked over Lindblad either, then it was unlikely a spectacular 2026 in F2 or Red Bull’s usual dumping ground SF would for 2027.

Furthermore, Marti’s replacement Nikola Tsolov also outshone Lindblad. On his debut at Losail, a new track to him and without the pre-season preparations other rookies had, the FIA F3 graduate qualified seventh while Lindblad was 17th.

Race pace

Did less than three rounds. Race pace is calculated using drivers’ best rolling average of 10 consecutive green-flag laps

That put him fourth on the sprint race grid, and he took third from Van Amersfoort Racing’s Rafael Villagomez on lap one. They went wheel-to-wheel again on the final lap and Tsolov came off worse, dropping to 10th.

He was also set to finish one place higher than he started in the feature race, but a penalty for a unsafe release from his first ever pitstop put him back to seventh. Tsolov had “a busy couple of weeks trying to prepare myself physically” and faced many new elements under the lights in Qatar but “the only surprise was the call to move up” to F2 itself.

Lindblad redeemed himself by charging up to fourth, but that was his first top-five finish in a feature race since his win from pole in round six at Barcelona. When they headed to Abu Dhabi, Tsolov was faster again in qualifying. An impeding violation meant a three-place grid penalty in both races for Tsolov, but he rose from fifth to third in the sprint race and while there were only two circuits to take data from his average deficit to the benchmark on single-lap and race pace was sixth best in the field.

The fastest driver in the Yas Marina sprint race was Duerksen, who bookended 2025 with victories, claimed six podiums in the last eight races, led more laps total than all but Crawford and Fornaroli, was fifth on race pace for the year but 13th on single-lap pace and came ninth in the standings in a one-sided garage as team-mate Cian Shields propped up the field.

In contrast to Duerksen, Browning scored one point in the last five races and that cost him the championship runner-up spot. He led the points after round five in Monaco, had the best race pace in four races, and it would’ve taken only one race going differently for him to be 2025’s top scorer in feature races. Despite leading less than a feature race-worth of laps all season.

Laps led (excl. safety car periods)

1 Crawford 103   2 Fornaroli 90   3 Lindblad 61   4 Verschoor 60   5 Duerksen 54   6 Dunne 55   7 Beganovic 49   8 Marti 44   9 Maini 42   10 Browning 22   11 Stanek 16   12 Martins 12   13 Montoya 8   14 Miyata 5   15 Goethe 3   16 Mini 1

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Browning’s unpropitious end to the year began in the Baku feature race, where he had a slow start, lost time in a double stack pitstop, went off at a restart and pitted again to be a lap down. At Losail he spun in practice, qualified 18th and recovered to 10th in the feature race by cycling to the front (7% of his time leading in 2025) before pitting with three laps to go.

At Yas Marina he qualified 17th while struggling with a brake issue, finished the two races in 20th and 14th and got a pitlane speeding penalty.

Browning was fifth and fourth on absolute and race pace at the season’s halfway point, and improved to fourth in the latter but fell to eighth in the former with a minor worsening of his actual average gap to the benchmark pace on any given weekend.

He matched Fornaroli’s tally of nine podiums, while Crawford, Dunne and Duerksen all got eight, but only won once (from pole at Monza). The only other driver without multiple victories in the top in the standings was team-mate Beganovic.

Did a lack of winning form matter? Not according to Browning himself. “Honestly, I don’t mind [not winning],” was his take after a double podium in round three at Imola. He added at Barcelona “it doesn’t cross my mind at all to win any races” and “I couldn’t tell you who won the Barcelona feature race four years ago, but I can tell you who won the championship, so that’s the main goal for me”.

While being happily win-free doesn’t sound like a title-winning mentality, the Williams junior was conveying how relaxed he felt about his season at that point having met his personal targets — including improved consistency and showing race-winning pace. And he’d won twice en route to third in the 2024 FIA F3 Championship, behind Fornaroli and one-time winner Mini.

At the end of the season, after Browning had spent many weekends being asked by media about whether wins or consistency was more important for winning the title, Formula Scout circled back to his early-season comments. Since he had won a race, but not the title, what did he want his season to be remembered for within the paddock, and outside of it?

Points scored

Feature races			Sprint races
Pos	Driver	Points	Pos	Driver	Points
1	Fornaroli	144	1	Verschoor	62
2	Crawford	133	2	Fornaroli	61
3	Browning	131	=3	Dunne	44
4	Verschoor	108	=3	Lindblad	44
5	Dunne	102	=3	Marti	44
6	Beganovic	90	6	Crawford	38
7	Lindblad	88	7	Duerksen	34
8	Duerksen	73	8	Browning	31
9	Stanek	72	=9	Stanek	29
10	Marti	68	=9	Martins	29
11	Montoya	67	=11	Beganovic	26
12	Martins	64	=11	Mini	26

“Great question. What was really special about this year for me, which I think really shows who I was as a driver, is being the hero for the British fans at the home grand prix. That feature race, I came from outside the points, and I was lapping a second quicker than most people in the grid in the wet. And around my home circuit that I knew so well, I think it showed talent, because after all, all the cars are equal in the wet.

“That was probably one of the most standout things for me, and what I’d like to be remembered by is my wet-weather prowess. But I think equally the ability to execute and just optimise what I have in terms of the points. For the pace that we’ve had this year versus the points and situations that I’ve been in, I’ve almost optimised everything as a driver that I can.

“Not always do you have the luck to win the championship, you need pace and luck. And we didn’t have so much luck this year, especially with the safety car coming out when we were looking on for a podium last weekend [from 18th on the grid]. These things happen. Dominating in Monza was a good highlight, and not an easy one on a circuit that’s so easy to overtake. And just doing this in our first year. It takes guys years and years to perfect this championship, and still don’t achieve it. And although I’ve not managed to perfect the championship, we got bloody close at times, and I think I’m very proud of that.”

Saying he optimised everything doesn’t correlate with the season-end particularly. Beganovic finished ahead of him in 10 races, and six of those were in the last three rounds. He dominated the Baku sprint race to break his own victory duck and lead a Hitech one-two, and in the Losail feature race led a one-two again on fastest laps and race pace. But he finished ninth, and called it “one of my best races I’ve ever done”.

Hitech came second in the standings with its all-rookie line-up, and the 38-point gap to Invicta could’ve been far smaller or negated entirely. So maybe Browning was a title-calibre driver maximising his potential until the last two qualifying sessions.

Invicta, Hitech and Campos were the only teams to get double podiums, each doing so twice, while the champions were on the podium at 10 circuits, with Hitech, Campos and Rodin (which came eighth in the teams’ standings) collecting trophies from eight rounds. Like AIX, Rodin was reliant on one driver and its rookie Dunne scored all but five of its 155 points.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

He was frank about what lacking a team-mate he could take data references from to improve his own car meant for his year.

“There was a relatively big gap between myself and the other car for most of the year,” Dunne told Formula Scout.

“There were a couple of times where there were things that I could maybe have a look at just to compare myself. But for the most part, it was very difficult to pick apart things to find for the majority part of the year. In fairness to Martinus [Stenshorne], in Qatar he jumped in pretty quickly and did a good job there. So I would say that was kind of the first weekend of the year where I had another reference to properly analyse and learn from, and spend a lot more time looking through the data to just see where I can improve.

“I think for the most part of the year, even without a strong reference, we’ve still done a good job kind of getting there, not by ourselves, but without having data to properly compare to each weekend. We’ve always managed to still reach a very high level.”

Dunne was the second fastest driver at the season’s halfway point, and sixth on race pace. He was surpassed by Fornaroli on absolute pace after that, and to ninth on race pace despite his average gap to the pace-setters only increasing marginally. That’s impressive given the lack of a strong team-mate meant he couldn’t enjoy the learning curve Fornaroli had.

As a McLaren junior Dunne could lean on their support to improve himself, while Browning felt he developed massively under Williams this year. Dunne got two F1 practice call-ups too, both on F2 weekends so requiring in-event adaptation, then he left McLaren in October to reportedly pursue a seat with an F1 rival. Dunne didn’t comment on this when asked by Formula Scout.

There’s one driver who notably has not been named in this review of the 2025 F2 title fight, because he didn’t feature in it.

Victor Martins was on average the fastest driver in qualifying this year, without a doubt, as he was never off the pace. But the reasons he came 11th in the standings in his third campaign with ART Grand Prix will require analysing on their own.

The post Could anyone have beaten Fornaroli to the 2025 F2 title? appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Prema

Prema’s Gabriele Mini has revealed the key factor that consigned him to a season of struggles in Formula 2 this year.

The Italian began his F2 career last year in Baku and made the podium on debut, then he started 2025 with a pole position.

But he came 13th in the standings with no top-five finishes in feature races until the last three rounds in Asia. He ended the year with a podium from 13th on the grid.

“To be honest, I did not expect to be here today,” he said after finishing third in the Abu Dhabi feature race.

“It was just an amazing first lap. I gained seven positions, I was already up to P6 after the first lap. And then it was just all about taking care of the tyres, good overtakes, and managing till the end.”

Mini’s average starting position for feature races was 10.7, and his median starting position was 12th. But he reaped little benefit from reversed grids, with his points tally from sprint races the 12th highest in the field.

“Of course it’s not been what we wanted or what we expected, especially after such a strong first part after [pole in] Australia,” dwelled the Italian.

“We had been very quick in all testing, very quick on the first race weekend. Both the quali, being on pole, and in the first race gaining a lot of places. So we were expecting to stay there. But it didn’t happen. We had many ups and downs really.

“Every time we could fight for some points, something was happening. So either engine breakdown or a slow stop, which made us lose a lot of points. And ultimately what we missed was always the step from free practice to qualifying. Because even this weekend we were fastest almost every lap in FP. In the end we finished P2. And then already from the first lap of quali we were missing quite a lot, and for the second set it was even more. That’s what we’ve been missing really to fight for the front.”

Mini felt “it’s hard to” assess his improvements but his final race showed “quite a good learning” through 2025.

“For sure one thing that I’ve improved, I feel like it’s the first lap. Positioning, racecraft and stuff like this,” he added.

Ending the season with a podium was “really, really important, both for me going into the next plans and the future, and also for the team” as Prema came sixth in the standings.

“We’ve been working really hard, it’s not like we surrendered at some point. We’ve still been working very hard, adding some extra simulator days to test more stuff and more things. Even for me to learn more and try different things. And I feel like even though the season hasn’t been great, but we still – because of the hard work and everything we’ve done – deserved it.

“So I think it’s amazing to end with a podium, especially not starting from the front.”

The post Mini explains ‘what we always missed’ in struggle-filled first F2 season appeared first on Formula Scout.