Eight rounds into the 14 events of the 2026 Formula 2 season, three Formula 1 juniors have emerged as clear title contenders – with another one a dark horse.
Red Bull Junior Team member Nikola Tsolov currently leads the standings on 161 points from Alpine Academy racer Gabriele Mini (134), Rafael Camara (125) from the Ferrari Driver Academy, and Alpine’s Alex Dunne (108).
Campos Racing’s Tsolov may have been the most impressive of all with already six wins to his name, including three in a row – a record in Formula 2, only matched by Davide Valsecchi in the GP2 era.
Mini has been the most consistent driver, admittedly taking just one victory but finishing 14 races in the top eight with MP Motorsport – all but the Monaco feature race, where the sophomore endured a slow pitstop as he was running fifth, and the Spa-Francorchamps sprint, where he lay 12th before a technical issue took him out of the race.
Following in champions Gabriel Bortoleto and Leonardo Fornaroli’s footsteps at Invicta Racing after equalling the GP3/F3 record for pole positions in a season on his way to last year’s title, Camara has taken four of the last five poles, which helped him clinch two feature race victories.
Dunne is yet to match the highs of his rookie F2 season, but he has still collected five podiums thus far with Rodin Motorsport.
On a Spa-Francorchamps track that is a driver favourite and still challenges the youngsters – perhaps more than F1 racers nowadays – these four drivers confirmed their status as frontrunners in the 2026 season.
Not so much in the sprint race – the reverse grid usually paves the way for unusual results, and this was no exception. Joshua Duerksen prevailed to end a 13-race podiumless run, second-placed Martinius Stenshorne scored points for the first time since Monaco, and Ferrari junior Dino Beganovic returned to the podium – Monaco also being his previous appearance on the rostrum.
But the feature contest, despite a few incidents that curtailed the race, provided interesting wheel-to-wheel racing, and the frontrunners rose to the occasion.
Camara lost out to fellow front-row starter Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak at the start, and robustly held off a bold Tsolov going around the outside at La Source two laps later, arguably pushing the Campos into the gravel.
Camara easily made his way back into the lead on lap five ahead of his pitstop. After the race was red-flagged due to a hefty crash for Laurens van Hoepen, the Brazilian made the most of his new tyres to pass three cars within seconds and went on to win most comfortably.
Rafael Camara, Invicta Racing
Photo by: Dom Gibbons / Formula 1 via Getty Images
Tsolov’s race was made trickier by an unsuccessful set-up tweak and damage from the incident with Camara – on top of further issues.
“I had a good restart and then obviously tried to attack Rafa into Turn 1, we had a little touch there,” the Bulgarian said. “From that moment onwards, for some reason I didn’t have so much pace anymore. Also the car was a little broken, so we got the chance during the red flag to fix the sidepod and stuff. [Tyres] really dropped off, especially with the set-up we had today, it was not the right choice, I think.
“The red flag helped us to understand that one of the brakes was fully switched off before that, so it probably was beneficial. Yeah, there were a few things that went wrong, but I think we still maximised it.”
The championship leader took a wise approach to the end of the race – “Tas [Inthraphuvasak] was faster today, so it was all about accepting that fact and just losing as little time as possible” – and ended up fifth under the chequered flag. Track-limits penalties for Dunne and his Campos team-mate Noel Leon, which Tsolov knew were coming, boosted him up to third – a modest result compared to his feature race victories at Red Bull Ring and Silverstone, but enough to increase his championship lead.
Nikola Tsolov, Campos Racing
Photo by: Clive Mason / Getty Images
While the all-rookie podium featured an unusually impressive Inthraphuvasak in second, current runner-up Mini discreetly but steadfastly recovered from a lap-one collision with Roman Bilinski and the consequent five-second penalty to finish fifth – right behind fellow Alpine junior Dunne.
Of the four emerging title contenders, podium finishers Camara and Tsolov attended the post-race press conference, and Autosport asked them what impressed them the most about each other.
“We’ve been both very consistent,” Camara said. “It looks like every race weekend we are there, even speaking last year as well. Nikola has been always quick. For sure he’s a very good one and it’s nice to be this year fighting for championships.
“And he also created a good respect for both. Obviously in the track you’re trying to maximise for yourself, but I think the respect outside of the track has been something that it was a good surprise or something – not surprised but not impressed as well, but it was something that I appreciate.”
Tsolov concurred: “Similar comment as Rafa. I think we know that what happens on track and off track is two separate things, so it’s quite cool to see. On the other hand, for sure his qualifying performances this year have been quite impressive, also last year, so it’s probably one that is quite impressive.”
Rafael Camara, Invicta Racing, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, ART Grand Prix, Nikola Tsolov, Campos Racing, Jack Watling, Invicta Racing
Photo by: Alex Bierens de Haan / LAT Images via Getty Images
As it happens, Camara and Tsolov also are the two F2 drivers whose names have been most prominent in F1’s nascent silly season – and it’s not just rumours, with Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane openly describing the Bulgarian as “next in line”.
However, the media-savvy youngsters unsurprisingly preferred to steer clear of the speculation.
“For me obviously that’s the end goal and my dream, but at the moment, the better I do in F2 the better position I have for anything for the future,” Tsolov said. “So I’m full focus on F2, obviously I’m taking it round by round.”
“I’m just focusing on what I can do at the moment, because if you’re not doing a good job in F2, most likely you’re not going where you want to,” Camara pointed out. “So just focusing on this year.”
In the meantime, there are 12 more races on the calendar, and it will be fascinating to see how Camara’s sheer speed and Tsolov’s racecraft stand up to Mini’s and Dunne’s experience.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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