The Spa reset that can revive Stenshorne and Beganovic’s 2026 F2 campaigns

All three drivers returned to the podium after several rounds | Credit: Formula 2

When Rodin Motorsport’s Martinius Stenshorne and DAMS’ Dino Beganovic crossed the line in the Formula 2 sprint at Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday, it sparked elation and relief in equal measure for both drivers and their teams. 

It wasn’t just a return to the podium, but vindication that both drivers had still maintained their strong run of pace from early in the season. 

The impact has been felt harder on Stenshorne, though, who hadn’t scored a single point since the Monaco weekend in early June. Brake problems, red flags and an overall lack of pace hampered him through qualifying sessions.

Starting further back has seen the Rodin man forced to get his elbows out on track, or take unconventional strategies to make up the lost ground. As such, he had copped penalties in Barcelona’s sprint, and lost sixth in the Austrian Feature Race for a pit stop infringement. 

He wouldn’t get a right to bounce back at Silverstone either, his engine going up in flames on his way to the grid. 

“I was quite good in the first four rounds, and then it dropped off a bit,” Stenshorne replied, speaking to DIVEBOMB about his struggles midway through the season. 

Beganovic commenced the 2026 F2 season with strong pace | Credit: Formula 2

In the same boat, Beganovic commenced the season in a vein of form that cemented him as one to watch out for. Although he took pole in Melbourne’s season opener, mechanical issues in the Feature Race down under and later in Canada cost him big in his chances. 

“We always had the pace to be in the front in the beginning,” the Swedish driver reiterated. “We had a couple of unfortunate DNFs with technical issues, but the pace was always there. 

Beganovic certainly had plenty of reason to believe in the package DAMS offered over the course of the season. He would still score second in the rain at Miami, and later prevail in a last-lap battle with ART’s Kush Maini in Monaco to claim third. 

However, ever since, Beganovic’s form has dropped. Qualifying in Spa marked a return to the top 10 for the first time since the Monaco weekend, and the DAMS man has only scored 14 points ever since. The latter rounds in Austria and Silverstone also saw Beganovic start behind teammate Roman Bilinski, in what appeared to be a change within the DAMS camp. 

“It was quite unusual from the beginning of the year,” Beganovic expressed, questioning where the early-season pace had disappeared. “It was a bit different; our pace hasn't been as strong, and we really struggled to be in the top ten.”

For both drivers, a familiar pattern had followed: Scoring heavily at newer venues, and later qualifying strongly at Monaco, before falling back on F2’s return to mainstream European venues. 

On Beganovic’s end of the garage, it required an F2 racer in his second full season to evolve and fine-tune his driving based on the improved understanding of the championship. With a season of experience under his belt, the onus fell on the Swede to drive himself out of lower starting positions and make the most out of the results. 

Flashes of Beganovic’s race pace were visible in Barcelona, when he turned around a starting position outside the top 10 into seventh and sixth across the sprint and Feature Race, respectively. 

Another impressive showing in the sprint race around Silverstone would see Beganovic climb from 11th on the road to sixth, with strong pace at the end of the race netting him the fastest lap. 

Stenshorne started second for the Saturday sprint | Credit: Formula 2 via X

On the contrary, Stenshorne’s challenges lay in the case of poor timing, and Rodin Motorsport’s difficulty in nailing the right set-up. As he would put it: “We've done some big changes, which I think will show.”

His statements only link up closer to the team’s desires to find the missing pace and overturn what has been a difficult sequence of weekends in the European leg of the season. 

With several drivers around them banking points and adding to their tally, Beganovic and Stenshorne gradually lost ground to the leading quartet in the standings. The Rodin man was level on points with teammate Dunne after F2’s Monaco weekend, with Beganovic sitting a close sixth back then.

Both drivers sat ahead of Invicta’s Rafa Câmara, and closer to the leading pair of Nikola Tsolov and Gabriele Minì.

Coming into Spa, both drivers had slid down to seventh and eighth in the order, surpassed by the Invicta man, as well as the chasing duo of Noel León and ART’s Maini.

Their early-season form looked to have been a thing of the past, and it was all about rediscovering the speed once again. 

Stenshorne finished second on the medium tyres in practice, taking away plenty of learning on his side of the garage. Beganovic, on the other hand, recovered his pace through a stronger qualifying session, finishing sixth. 

Stenshorne managed to put in a lap good enough for ninth on the road. “I think there was more on the table,” the Norwegian driver expressed, on the chaotic finish towards the end of the 30-minute session on Friday. “I think the change we did for sure helped.”    

Yet, the opportunities would open up on the Saturday race for them to score a big result. 

The tow and the effect of the slipstream up the long Kemmel straight would open up an opportunity for Stenshorne to take the lead from PREMA’s Sebastián Montoya, as he set up his bid to return to the top step of the podium. 

Meanwhile, Beganovic had capitalised on a difficult start for teammate Bilinski to move up to fourth, early on. 

While the DAMS man kept in touch with the top three, a minor lock-up by Montoya into Turn 1 opened up the opportunity for him to climb up into the podium positions. 

Stenshorne, meanwhile, looked on course for a win, having opened up a gap of almost two seconds to the chasing pair of Joshua Dürksen and Montoya. The safety car on Lap 6 for the crashed AIX of Cian Shields changed the course of his race. 

“I had to push quite hard to keep the lead,” Stenshorne remarked on his approach early in the race. However, what worked the first time wouldn’t quite pan out to be the case later on. A mistake in the first sector. 

Pushing too hard, the Rodin man made a mistake on Lap 10, opening the door for Dürksen to close down the gap and take the race lead on the following lap. 

Yet, despite losing out on a certain race win, Stenshorne looked best pleased with second, his best result in the championship since his Feature Race win in Canada. “It feels good to be back, and hopefully we can continue in this way now,” he remarked. 

Only moments later, Beganovic crossed the line in third, returning to the podium for the first time since Monaco. “After quite a lot of changes internally for the team and me, we feel in a better spot now than at the last couple of rounds,” he remarked, looking ahead to better weekends in store in the second half of the session. 

Fortunately, the second half of the season presents several opportunities to the pair, around a familiar stretch of the season. Spa marked the first step in their return to form, and a potential turning point in their seasons.

For both Stenshorne and Beganovic, two drivers whose form has meandered away after a strong start to their F2 campaigns, the opening act of the second half in Spa served as the perfect example of why both drivers remain highly regarded in the championship, and were earmarked as title contenders to begin with.