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.”

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

A soft tyre that lasted longer than expected on a boiling hot Barcelona circuit was key to the unlikely result in the Formula 2 sprint race.

Only the top three runners from the first part of the race managed to hold on and score points without pitting for soft tyres under a late safety car. DAMS’ Jak Crawford was fourth, while Hitech’s Luke Browning and Invicta Racing’s Leonardo Fornaroli took the chequered flag in seventh and eighth place respectively.

A window of opportunity opened on lap 18 of 26 when the safety car was deployed. Richard Verschoor, who was running in eighth place, was first of the drivers who pitted, and eventually claimed the victory.

“The team did the right call,” the MP Motorsport driver said in the press conference after the race. “They told me very confidently to box. I followed what they told me, and in the end we had a great race.”

In conversation with Formula Scout in the paddock later on, MP’s team manager Jeremy Coterill emphasised the importance of reacting to what actually happens during the race even though the team has certain pre-set decisions, and that the driver plays an important role in making the strategy work.

Verschoor rejoined the track down in 10th place, but three laps after the restart he was already first. The pace difference between the soft and the hard compound was an unknown for the Dutchman, who didn’t believe the win was possible.

“I didn’t know it was going to be big for like all the laps we did. So it’s six, I guess. So the gaps were just, I mean the grip difference was just insane. And I think it was a lot more than many people expected. That’s also why I think the top seven didn’t box.”

Alex Dunne followed Verschoor across the line to finish second, allowing him to recover from 19th on the grid.

“If you look at the end of the race, like the tyre difference was insane. I haven’t been in that situation before,” Dunne said. The Rodin Motorsport driver “was pretty surprised at the delta” that allowed him to finish second instead of just picking up “some points” as he was aiming for when he came out of the pits.

Drivers agreed that the really high track temperature of 49ºC helped their pit-stops pay off.

“Like in Bahrain, we’ve seen when it’s quite hot, then the hards start to struggle quite a bit,” explained Rafael Villagomez, who came from the back of the grid to claim his maiden series podium in third place.

“Today the delta difference was pretty big. Also because you’re going at the end of the race, so if you put on a fresh set of softs with a lighter car, then you’re going to get something like this.”

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Rafael Villagomez will continue to race in Formula 2 with Van Amersfoort Racing for a second season in 2025.

The Mexican driver will be entering his fifth year with the Dutch team, after his backers helped facilitate its expansion into F2 and FIA Formula 3 in 2022.

After two years in F3 with the team, when he twice finished 25th in the standings, he stepped up to F2 last season and scored points on four occasions, putting 24th in the championship, with a seventh place in the Melbourne feature race his best result.

Villagomez describes this season as an “important year for myself and the team”.

“Towards the end of the year things started to shape up better so I’m looking forward to carry on,” he said. “A lot of work has been done over the winter so I’m looking forward to start testing [in] Barcelona.”

Villagomez has been joined in the team since the final two rounds of the 2024 season by GB3 graduate John Bennett.

Enzo Fittipaldi had been his team-mate for most of last season, winning the feature race in Jeddah, and went on to test with McLaren’s IndyCar team in November. He has now committed to racing outside of single-seaters in 2025 with a deal to race in the LMP2 class of the European Le Mans Series alongside Pipo Derani and Manuel Espirito Santo.

“We’re excited to have Rafa stay with our F2 team for the upcoming season,” said Brad Joyce, VAR team principal.

“He made significant progress last year, and we’re excited to continue working together to further his development. We’re confident he’ll build on his performances and achieve better results.”

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

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

McLaren junior Alex Dunne will take part in this week’s post-season Formula 2 test in Abu Dhabi with Rodin Motorsport ahead of a potential step up to the series for 2025.

With 16 out of 22 drivers already announced by their teams for next season, very few question marks were left to be answered by the publication of the entry list for the three-day test that begins on Wednesday.

In fact, of the remaining seven seats, six will be filled for the start of the test by the same drivers that occupied them during the season-ending races at Yas Marina.

Irishman Dunne contested his first season in the FIA Formula 3 Championship in 2023 with MP Motorsport, and gained the backing of the McLaren Formula 1 team early in the year. He finished the campaign 14th in the standings with sprint race podiums at Barcelona and Monza.

Dunne was previously a dominant British Formula 4 champion in 2022, when he also finished second to Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the Italian series. He went on to also be runner-up in GB3 in 2023.

One driver staying on with his 2024 team for the test is Victor Martins amid speculation that he could remain in the series for a third year with ART Grand Prix.

The Alpine junior finished fifth overall as top rookie in 2023 but experienced a more difficult second season with the new-for-2024 car, eventually recovering to seventh in the championship with a single sprint race win at Barcelona and one pole position in Abu Dhabi.

AIX Racing and Van Amersfoort Racing both retain their line-ups from the final two rounds of the 2024 season, with Joshua Duerksen and Rafael Villagomez preparing for their second seasons and joined respectively by Cian Shields and John Bennett, who both made their F2 debuts in Qatar.

However, Duerksen will hand his car over to Argentine driver Nico Varrone for Friday’s final day. The 24-year-old last raced a single-seater intermittently in GB3 in 2019 and 2020, after winning the 2018 V de V Challenge. He went on to become a star of sportscar racing, winning the World Endurance Championship’s LMGTE Am title with Corvette Racing in 2023.

Test entry list

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Four drivers left Silverstone with penalty points put on their licences after Formula 2’s feature race on Sunday, while Prema picked up two fines.

The first €1,000 (£847) fine came after dry-ice pellets were seen coming out of Ollie Bearman’s car at turn 15 on the formation lap. That posed a safety issue, and the FIA deemed it led to Virtuosi Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto spinning.

Bearman, who finished the race in seventh, was also given “a five-place grid drop suspended until the end of this season, which will be implemented for any similar violation”.

“Tough race two today. I made a good start and first lap, as I got up to P2. I came to the pits in P3 for the pitstop, but unfortunately, after that the pace was quite bad, and I was struggling to keep up with the cars in front and in high-speed corners,” said Bearman.

“I was just missing the components to push the car to the limit, and it’s quite sad because it could have been a good race today. We’ll keep working and hopefully, we can be closer to where we want to be in Budapest.”

The second fine of €500 (£423) was issued as Prema had “abandoned a blower” in the fast lane of the pitlane pre-race and did not retrieve it until nine minutes later.

Bearman’s team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli revealed he “had a few engine issues” in qualifying, which left him 10th on the feature race grid. He was spun out on lap one by Virtuosi’s Kush Maini, who was given two penalty points for the incident.

“A pretty short race, it lasted less than three corners,” summarised Antonelli, who still considered it a positive weekend after claiming his maiden win in the sprint race.

Hitech GP’s Paul Aron got two penalty points for contact with AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen, in addition to a time penalty he served during the feature race, and DAMS’ Juan Manuel Correa was handed a five-second penalty and a penalty point having “released the clutch while the mechanic on the right rear wheel was still fitting the wheel” during his first pitstop.

The mechanic in question, Christophe Laine, sustained a hand injury because of the incident.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Rafael Villagomez drops from 16th to 18th in the race results after receiving a 10s penalty and two penalty points for overtaking Hitech’s Amaury Cordeel at turn eight during the race’s first safety car period.

There was also a fine issued in relation to FIA Formula 3’s feature race, with Campos Racing having to pay €2,500 (£2,118) due to all “team personnel not wearing appropriate eye protection during” Oliver Goethe’s pitstop.

Although they were actually wearing the required eye protection visors, they were all in the raised position rather than shielding their faces, and a Campos representative said this was to “improve visibility in the relatively dark conditions in pitlane”.

It was a justification that the FIA deemed inadequate and a “clear breach of the important mandatory safety
measures”.

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The 22-year-old Mexican has raced for the team since 2021, starting off with a part-time campaign in the Formula 3-level Euroformula series where he came eighth in the standings with five podiums.

For 2022 he moved across to VAR’s FIA F3 Championship line-up, and came 25th in the standings with two points. He had already raced in FIA F3 in 2021 with the HWA Racelab team and scored no points.

Villagomez began 2023 by stepping down to Formula Regional to race for Pinnacle VAR in the Middle East championship, where he came 13th in the standings with one podium, then returned to FIA F3 and matched his 2022 position and points haul.

“I am very excited to step up to F2. I’m ready for this next level up,” said VIllagomez.

“The dynamics coming from an F2 car are overly impressive, but I grew great confidence after a successful post-season test in Abu Dhabi last year. The test has proven to both myself and the people around me that F2 is the right category for me to further develop myself as a driver. The team and I know each other very well, which will only be of great benefit to all of us. I look very much forward to continuing our journey together and getting the season started.”

F2 will use a new car this season, replacing the one Villagomez drove in testing at Yas Marina Circuit at the end of last year. Villagomez will be team-mate to Enzo Fittipaldi.

“As a team, we always aim for long-term co-operation with our drivers,” said Rob Niessink, VAR’s CEO.

“The benefits of such a long-term relationship are extremely valuable and will help Rafael to progress at a high pace, as his experience in F3 will do of course. As a result of his unparalleled determination, we’ve seen Rafael grow and mature strongly as a driver and he is ready for this next challenge. We are fully committed to offering him our continuous support, especially in this exciting next chapter of his racing career.”

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Rafael Villagomez will stay with Van Amersfoort Racing for a third season in the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

The 21-year-old made his single-seater debut in 2020 after winning the Richard Mille Young Talent Academy shootout, which earned him a seat in French Formula 4. He also raced part-time in British F4 with Fortec Motorsports.

After a single year he stepped up to Formula 3-level competition for 2021, bridging the jump up the ladder by starting his year in Formula Regional Asia with BlackArts Racing. After that, he raced in FIA F3 with HWA Racelab and Euroformula with VAR.

The Mexican stayed with VAR for the team’s first season in FIA F3 in 2022, finishing 26th in the standings with a best result of ninth in the Imola sprint race. Ahead of the 2023 F3 season, Villagomez will drive in FRegional Middle East for the team.

“I am really excited about competing in F3 again,” said Villagomez. “Both myself and the team grew a lot last year and it’s great to be able to continue working together in 2023.

“I have used the winter period to fully prepare myself physically, and I am really excited to be already racing in January in FRMEC. It feels like this is the best approach to get fully ready for the season and I can’t wait for it to finally kick off again.”

VAR’s chief executive officer Rob Niessink commented: “It is great to continue working with Rafael this upcoming season. Rafael is very dedicated to his goals, which makes him an absolute pleasure to work with.”

“Having a driver in the team for multiple seasons has clear benefits. Due to the intense contact, you grow stronger as a team, which ultimately is key for performing well on track.

“Our crew is very committed to support Rafael in progressing both on- and off the circuit and all are fully dedicated to book strong results this season.”

Villagomez is the second driver to be confirmed for VAR’s FIA F3 line-up, following GB3 graduate Tommy Smith. Formula Scout understands that the third seat has already been filled with an announcement expected in the coming weeks.

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VAR revealed its intentions to enter the two series to Formula Scout last summer, explaining how it already had an alliance with Pinnacle and had sent some of its contracted F4 drivers and engineers to race for the Irish team in the UAE.

The partnership’s 2023 FRMEC line-up will consist of Pinnacle’s ’22 FRegional Asia runner-up Pepe Marti, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, Mexican driver Rafael Villagomez and Dutchamn Niels Koolen.

Marti, who also raced in the FIA Formula 3 Championship last year, will only do rounds one and four at Dubai Autodrome.

Inthraphuvasak has experience of Dubai and Yas Marina Circuit on the FRMEC schedule having come seventh in F4 UAE last year. He won a race there, and also took a win in Spanish F4. During 2022 he gained FRegional mileage by joining the Ultimate Cup Series, where in six races he claimed five wins, three poles and six fastest laps. He will do the full FRMEC campaign.

Villagomez’s backing helped VAR’s expansion into Formula 2 and the FIA F3 in 2022, and he has already spent two years racing at the F3 level with the team.

Koolen meanwhile only has three weekends of single-seater racing experience under his belt from last year across two different F4 series with VAR’s partner team Monlau Motorsport.

In F4 UAE, Pinnacle VAR will run Brando Badoer, Jack Beeton, Kai Daryanani and Hiyu Yamakoshi.

Badoer is the 16-year-old son of former Formula 1 driver Luca and embarked on his rookie year racing cars in 2022.

He began in F4 UAE with AKM Motorsport, finishing 28th in the standings after missing the final round, did two ADAC F4 rounds with VAR as a guest driver and then contested the full Italian F4 season with the team and scored four times to come 16th in the championship.

Badoer will do the opening F4 UAE round this year then return to the series for rounds four and five, with Yamakoshi driving the car in the two rounds at Kuwait Motor Town between. He will make his F4 debut, having come 30th in the CIK-FIA European championship. 35th in the WSK Super Master Series and 43rd in the Champions of the Future series for OK karts last year.

Beeton is making the step up to F4 from karting, having finished sixth in the Australian championship’s KA4 Junior class last year. He was also one of the six finalists in the Ferrari Driver Academy’s Scouting World Final, and since then has tested with multiple F4 teams in Europe.

He will do the full UAE season, as will Daryanani. The Indian was 34th in the Super One championship in Britain for Rotax Senior karts in 2022.

The post VAR and Pinnacle Motorsport reveal line-ups for FRMEC and F4 tie-up appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Diederik van der Laan / Dutch Photo Agency

Roy Nissany has been banned from the next Formula 2 round at Monza after he and David Beckmann were penalised for their contact behind the safety car at Zandvoort.

Both drivers were given 10-second penalties and two penalty points for the feature race incident in the feature race, when they were jostling over position while running side-by-side behind the safety car. As a result, Beckmann ran into the rear of Marino Sato on the pit straight, damaging his front wing, then appeared to make further contract with Nissany on his right-hand side.

Stewards found both drivers guilty of “driving in a dangerous manner whilst the safety car was deployed” and “reminded” both that “it is not up to him to re-establish the right order behind a safety car and it is dangerous to drive side-by-side whilst the safety car is deployed.”

Nissany already had 11 points on his record and has therefore now reached the maximum of 12 that leads to a one-round suspension.

The fourth-year F2 racer and Williams Formula 1 tester is the third driver this year to be banned, after rookies Amaury Cordeel and Olli Caldwell were forced to miss the Silverstone and Spa rounds respectively. DAMS will be able to replace Nissany at Monza.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Beckmann now has four points on his licence. He was reprimanded in practice for rolling back onto track in the path of Jack Doohan having gone off into the gravel at Turn 13.

Stewards also investigated the second safety car restart in the feature race when Doohan was hit from behind by Richard Verschoor and taken out of the race after then-leader Liam Lawson waited as late as possible to resume racing.

They decided no further action was required against runner-up Verschoor nor Lawson for “allegedly driving in a manner potentially dangerous to other drivers”.

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Photo: Joe Portlock / Formula Motorsport Limited

Rafael Villagomez and Reece Ushijima were left impressed by Jack Doohan’s working methods and positively value his advice from the time he spent working with them at Van Amersfoort Racing.

Formula Scout spoke with VAR’s FIA Formula 3 Championship drivers in the Red Bull Ring paddock about what they had learned from Doohan, who is currently in his rookie Formula 2 season with Virtuosi Racing but after coming second in FIA F3 last year with Trident did work for the incoming VAR on its F3 programme.

“I think initially at Valencia in the post-season test we didn’t really speak much. It was more of a business relationship. I was learning from him,” Ushijima explained about how it started.

Doohan drove in all three days of FIA F3’s 2021 post-season test for VAR, and was also trackside at Barcelona this year coaching the team’s drivers. Despite not officially working with them anymore, as Formula Scout has learned from VAR’s chief executive officer Rob Niessink, the relationship between Doohan and his pupils is still good.

“Over time, I’ve become a lot better friends with him and now it’s almost like a weekly thing. I go to speak to him and ask a couple of questions I have about F3. He’s always been very supportive and very open to helping me out with some things I’ve been struggling with throughout the year,” said Ushijima.

“Just asking him about, not only the understanding of the tyre and everything from his side, how he felt things, but more also the mental approach to a lot of things as well.

“Asking him how he went through things, how he dealt with a lot of adversity has helped me out in my progression.”

That isn’t the only aspect where he feels that Doohan has played a key role.

“I think it was difficult for a team first coming in to kind of have a direction to go for and just his leadership in Valencia’s test helped us a lot. And especially me, because I was sitting right across in the engineering briefing, so I could see, you know, he is not stuttering over his words. He knows what he wants from the car.

“Everything in racing is quite secluded, so having him there and actually seeing how he worked, it was really beneficial to me because you don’t see that, you can’t find that. You can’t find that on YouTube, you can’t find that anywhere. So, being able to see that with my own eyes, it was definitely beneficial to me.”

For Villagomez, it is Doohan’s work ethic that prevails.

“His work ethic is pretty good. I mean everyone that keeps working in the work ethic, in the car you jump in, will always be good. From outside the car to inside, to the feedback, everything he is really spot on,” he said, pointing out Doohan has helped him most “in the driving technique, the way you have to drive these cars”.

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