Feeder Series Preview: Barcelona
- DIVEBOMB Motorsport
- 1 minute ago
- 4 min read
Written by Trisha Lynnette Nathan and Morgan Holiday
Formula 2 and Formula 3 are coming into the second weekend of a double-header, moving on from a busy, glamorous weekend in Monaco to the hills of Barcelona.
Find out what’s in store for drivers this weekend in DIVEBOMB’s preview.
Formula 3
Formula 3 heads to Barcelona for round three of the 2026 season, with the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya hosting what could be a pivotal weekend in the championship fight. Unlike Monte Carlo, Barcelona is a circuit the drivers know intimately - it serves as the venue for pre-season testing, meaning the field arrives with a wealth of data and familiarity that Monaco's unforgiving streets simply cannot offer.
The 2.894 mile (4.657 km) clockwise circuit is well known for its high tyre degradation, particularly in the warmer summer conditions Barcelona typically provides. Where Monaco offered drivers just one DRS zone and precious little opportunity to overtake, Barcelona provides two, opening up the prospect of genuine on-track battles and making tyre management a key strategic variable across the weekend.
Last year at Barcelona, it was Rafael Câmara who took the win, converting pole position into a commanding feature race victory ahead of Théophile Naël in second and Alessandro Giusti in third. The sprint race, meanwhile, belonged to Ivan Domingues, who took victory ahead of Santiago Ramos and Nikola Tsolov.
Câmara went on to claim the 2025 championship title, and his Barcelona performance proved a significant moment in establishing that dominance. History, then, suggests that qualifying well at this circuit can define not just a weekend but an entire season.
Heading into Round 3, Ugo Ugochukwu of Campos Racing leads the drivers' championship, with Bruno Del Pino of Van Amersfoort Racing (VAR) remaining second and Freddie Slater just one point behind him in third.
Badoer's Monaco feature race victory has propelled him into fourth, whilst Naël enters the top five after his second place in the feature race. The championship is extraordinarily tight, and Barcelona's history of delivering unexpected results means no one in that top five can afford a single mistake.
Ugochukwu will be the man to watch this round. The Campos Racing driver has shown remarkable consistency across the opening two rounds. However, Del Pino arrives in fine form having scored in every race so far this season, and VAR will be desperate to bounce back following the bitter disappointment of Yamakoshi's Monaco disqualification.
Campos Racing leave Monaco with a commanding lead in the teams' championship, sitting 28 points clear of VAR. A strong qualifying performance could place Ugochukwu or Naël firmly in contention for a feature race victory that would further consolidate both his own and Campos' championship positions.
With Barcelona marking the second of three back-to-back European rounds before Spielberg the following weekend, teams will be acutely aware that the next fortnight could define the shape of the 2026 championship.
Practice gets underway on Friday at 09:55 AM (CEST), followed by qualifying at 15:00 PM (CEST). The sprint race takes place on Saturday at 10:05 AM (CEST). The feature race will be on Sunday at 08:40 AM (CEST).
Formula 2
After a frenetic weekend in Monaco, F2 moves on to Barcelona for Round 5 of the championship.
All 22 drivers on the grid are familiar with the 4.657 km long, 14 corner Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, as they completed pre-season testing at the track earlier this year. Many of these drivers, who came up from F3, will be more familiar with this track than any other on the calendar.
As mentioned above, tyre degradation is a key aspect of the Barcelona circuit, pushing drivers to manage their stints well throughout Qualifying, the Sprint Race (which does not require a pit stop or a change of tyres) and the Feature Race, where they will have to pit for new tyres at some point in the race.
The F2 grid is coming off of their weekend in Monaco, with hardly any break to prepare. Last time out, Rafael Câmara grabbed pole ahead of Nikola Tsolov, who topped Group B. In the Sprint Race, Noel León took his second F2 race win in his rookie year, grabbing a lights to flag victory in Monaco.
In the Feature Race, Câmara led the grid for most of the morning but fell foul of the troublesome outlaps that most drivers experienced, when cooler temperatures contributed to everyone having trouble warming up their tyres. After losing his gap to his rival Tsolov behind, Câmara hit the wall at Turn 1, ending his race and handing the lead to Tsolov.
Tsolov went on to score victory in Monaco, coming back from a scoreless trip to Montréal to take his third race win of the year and come up just one point short of the championship lead.
Heading into Barcelona, the current points leader Gabriele Minì will be fighting off Tsolov to retain the upper hand in the title fight, as the drivers below them will be hunting for a chance to take a big step.
Câmara, currently sitting seventh in the championship, took a dominant win at Barcelona last year in F3, so he’ll be a threat for anyone hoping for pole position or the Feature Race win. Last year’s F2 winners at Barcelona were Richard Verschoor in the Sprint and Arvid Lindblad in the Feature.
This weekend kicks off on Friday with Free Practice, taking place at 11:05 local time in Barcelona. The Sprint Race will take place on Saturday at 14:15 local time, and the Feature Race will follow on Sunday morning at 11:25 local time.
