From Herta’s leap to Câmara’s continuity - Five storylines ahead of the 2026 Formula 2 season
- Vyas Ponnuri
- 2 hours ago
- 6 min read
Written by Vyas Ponnuri
Formula 2 embarks on a landmark 10th season in 2026, and plenty of storylines dot the upcoming year of racing in F1’s premier feeder series. Vyas picks out the biggest ones to look out for, in the upcoming F2 campaign.
Can Rafael Câmara continue the Trident - Invicta legacy?
For the third F2 season in a row, the reigning Formula 3 champion from Trident steps up to Invicta Racing. If it was Gabriel Bortoleto in 2024 and later Leonardo Fornaroli in 2025, it is now Rafael Câmara’s turn to take this step up in 2026.
A striking pattern amidst F2’s tale has been the F3 champion going on to win the title at the end of the season, and make it back-to-back titles along the road to Formula 1. The form guides have been largely similar, with both Bortoleto and Fornaroli finding form and taking their first F2 victories mid-season, and continuing to grow in strength towards the latter stages.
Considering the momentum Câmara brings in after a dominant F3 campaign in 2025, there remains a strong chance that the Brazilian can make it three Invicta champions in a row this year.
A major aspect of the Ferrari junior’s success was his ability to maximise the points haul across a race weekend. Such was the nature of dominance that his tally of five poles and four Feature Race wins bettered the tally of several F3 champions themselves.
The reigning F3 champion looks to replicate his days, taking it one race at a time and looking to continue his ‘no regrets’ mentality into this season.
“I think I will just approach (this season) like last year, focusing race by race, just focusing on doing my best every weekend, and finding myself at the end of the championship with no regrets,” Câmara expressed ahead of the season.
A large amount of focus would be on the Brazilian to see if he can emulate fellow compatriot Bortoleto and make it to the Formula One grid one day.
Colton Herta and Nico Varrone’s giant leap (of faith)
Seldom do drivers join F2 from outside the feeder series ladder. The most recent example comes from Hitech’s Ritomo Miyata, who moved from Super Formula to F2 in 2024.
This year, it’s Miyata’s teammate Colton Herta who has made the giant leap, coming in from Andretti’s IndyCar outfit to an F2 seat at Hitech in 2026. The move comes about as Cadillac named the California native as their Formula One reserve driver, alongside additional support to Herta through his F2 season.
While Herta does have racing experience in Europe from his Spanish F3 and Euroformula Open championships a decade ago, the transition to F2 will still bring about a sea change to surmount. The lower downforce on F2 cars requires a different style of driving, while this season will also bring about Herta’s first race weekends on several circuits, including at Melbourne this weekend.
It will certainly make for an interesting storyline to see how the nine-time IndyCar winner gets along in the F2 season, alongside several drivers who have raced on the same circuits earlier in their racing careers.
Meanwhile, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Nicolás Varrone is attempting to pull off a similar giant leap, moving into F2 after seven years of racing sports cars and endurance events.
The Argentinian is driven by a booming motorsport culture back home, and took a chance to move into the series. Varrone is also set to compete in select endurance events across the season, and aims to bring his skills from sports cars to F2 this year.
A major storyline would be watching how the duo get along, and their success in the series could tempt several racing drivers to contemplate moving into F2 in the future.
The Alex Dunne journey
2026 will also mark the second year of Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne racing in F2, and the latest developments have seen the Irishman join the Alpine Driver Academy ahead of the new season.
Dunne sported the pink livery run by the French F1 team during pre-season testing, bringing eyeballs and leaving many wondering about the timeline of the latest development.
This move marks the end of a turbulent period for Dunne, who had opted to leave the McLaren Driver Development Programme midway through 2025, and found himself at the doorstep of Red Bull’s junior team, before this move was called off.
2026 also brings about a massive opportunity for the Rodin driver to build on a solid rookie F2 season, one that saw him place fifth in the standings, the highest among all returning drivers this season.
It will be interesting to see how Dunne channels the learnings from his year of racing in the championship, and sets about in his desire to make the step up to F1 one day.
Rookies and veterans shaping for an interesting team dynamic
Much like every F2 season, this year sees a number of rookies taking to the grid as well, and making the step up from Formula 3 to a full-time F2 seat.
While Herta and Varrone too count as rookies in this year’s season, and Câmara comes in for his first F2 season, the likes of Nikola Tsolov and Noel León form an all-rookie line-up at Campos.
Tsolov’s F3 teammate, and Aston Martin junior Mari Boya, steps up to PREMA Racing in 2026, while McLaren junior Martinius Stenshorne joins Dunne at Rodin Motorsport. Meanwhile, Laurens van Hoepen joins Trident for a full-time seat in 2026, having stood in for the final rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi last year.
DAMS racer Roman Bilinski comes into F2 on the back of a breakthrough season for Rodin’s F3 outfit, where he outscored teammates Callum Voisin and Louis Sharp, while Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak would be looking to continue flying the Thailand flag high along the road to Formula 1.
Finally, Emerson Fittipaldi Jr makes the giant leap from Eurocup-3 to F2 for AIX Racing, having been on the sidelines and observing the team’s workings through most of 2025.
Among the experienced drivers in the series, Joshua Dürksen will be looking to build on his successes at AIX Racing as he embarks on a new dawn with Invicta Racing in 2026. So too will Ferrari junior Dino Beganovic at DAMS after a strong end to his 2025 season. MP Motorsport’s duo of Gabriele Minì and Ollie Goethe will be aiming to build on their budding rookie seasons in the championship.
PREMA Racing’s Sebastián Montoya and VAR’s Rafael Villagómez would be looking to add to their 2025 successes this year, while Miyata and ART’s Kush Maini go into 2026 looking for a stronger turnaround with their new teams.
Trident’s John Bennett and AIX Racing’s Cian Shields make up the multiple-season runners in 2026, looking to take up the role of becoming consistent points scorers in the series.
All these drivers would be looking to take up every opportunity that comes to them and build on their years of experience in the championship.
A new circuit in the offing (or two?)
There remains one change to the 2026 calendar, with the ‘Madring’ set to host the final European race of the year in September, replacing the outgoing Imola event on the calendar. With the latter’s absence, it leaves over a month-and-a-half between the Jeddah weekend in mid-April and the Monaco weekend in June.
The prospects of F2 and F3 taking to the second Spanish weekend of the year will certainly make for an exciting sight, and plenty of opportunities for drivers to get acquainted with a new track layout and score big points.
Additionally, taking into account the rapidly evolving situation in the Middle East at the moment, there remains some uncertainty over the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian rounds scheduled for mid-April, potentially opening up opportunities for other circuits to host F2 this season.
However, nothing has been officially confirmed, so this remains a matter of developing interest as the season goes along.
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