Around the Principality: Formula 2 and Formula 3's weekend in Monaco
After 88 days without competitive action, Formula 3 made its long-awaited return as the grid made its way to Monaco for round 2 of the 2026 F3 Championship. The cancelled round in Bahrain was replaced by an in-season test in Austria, but for the 30 F3 drivers, this return to the track was most welcome.
A changed qualifying format for Monaco of two group sessions would see Rodin Motorsport’s Brando Badoer set the benchmark in an uninterrupted session of 1:24:612 in Group A. A nervous wait for the Italian would follow as the next 15 drivers made their way onto the circuit. It would be a front row start for Badoer as Théohile Nael, who would take Campos Racing’s second F3 pole in a row in Monaco after he topped Group B with a 1:24:471, claiming his second pole of the season.
VAR driver Hiyu Yamakoshi, who would lead the field away in the reverse grid sprint race. A red flag after an incident at the hairpin would see a lengthy stoppage on lap 1, with Benavides, Ho, Taponen and Badoer all out before the race really began. A rolling start would see the grid off again for a timed race as Yamakoshi held his lead. A brief safety car for yet another incident at the hairpin between Slater, Nael and Rivera would see Freddie Slater with a 10-second penalty. Despite pressure from behind, it would be a first F3 win for Hiyu Yamakoshi and yet again another double podium for VAR with Bruno Del Pino in P3 as they extended their teams’ championship lead. Gerrard Xie would slot in between in P2, giving China their first-ever F3 podium.
That first race win would sadly not last too long as Yamakoshi was disqualified after his VAR was found to have breached the technical regulations. Before his disqualification, Hiyu spoke about just how much this win meant. “It’s a dream come true. I am so happy and proud of the result”.
Although Monaco is renowned to be a low-deg track, eventual race winner Gerrard Xie spoke about the struggles he faced nearing the end of the race. “The start was quite good, and the race pace I felt quite happy, and then I started to struggle a little bit on the last two laps.”
It was a balance of risk vs reward for Bruno Del Pino as he took his second sprint race podium of the year, helping him to pop into P2 in the championship “It is very difficult to overtake in Monaco, and if you are not quite close into turn 10, a dive bomb is a bit of a suicide move. I’m not going to risk everything”. He did go on to speak of his move at the start on Pedro Clerot, who would later inherit the last step on the podium. “I did risk a bit on the first lap at the start with the Rodin, which I came out beneficial”.
A much less chaotic feature race came on Grand Prix Sunday as Theophile Nael lined up on pole. A poor second phase of his start would allow Badoer to lead into turn one. An incident between Tuukka Taponen and Maciej Gladysz would see the former DNF for the second day in a row. It would be a typical Monaco race with very few overtaking opportunities, allowing Brando Badoer to control the pace and lead the field to the checkered flag, taking his first F3 win with Nael and Slater making up the rest of the podium.
Race winner Brando Badoer spoke about how his unfortunate DNF in the sprint race after contact on lap one left him with very little preparation or data for the feature race. “The sprint race was chaotic. I got taken out at lap one, which was unfortunate, and I mean, we didn’t learn anything, didn’t have any data after it, but we were aware the big points were coming today, and it turned out well”.
Another driver learning on the fly throughout the feature was third-placed driver Freddie Slater. Slater spoke about making sure he had a clean race and the importance of the fastest lap point, which he managed to hold onto. “I didn't learn a lot from the sprint on my side, especially, but today I just did a clean job, and then I knew there was one point up for fastest lap, so that was kind of the goal. It’s kind of the goal for everyone once the race settles down”.
There were mixed emotions for Theophile Nael as the Frenchman spoke about his weekend. A first points finish for the double pole sitter was most welcome, but a slight disappointment not to come away with the win. “I did my best in Free Practice and Quali. I did a really good lap in Quali so I knew if I exited turn one in the lead, then I would lead the race very easily, but that's what it is, and I’m still happy to take some good points for the championship”.
Formula 2 returned to some sort of normality after their North American adventure as they took to the track around the principality. A difficult challenge still remained as the grid found the limits around one of the world's most famous tracks.
With the same qualifying format as F3, Group A made their way onto the track to set the time for the rest to chase. An early hit for the 2025 F3 champ, Rafael Camara, would leave him with suspension damage and looked to be an early exit from the session. A red flag for an incident involving Trident’s John Bennett would look to be Invicta’s saving grace as they rushed to repair the damage. A momentous effort would see Camara rejoin as the session went green again and ultimately top the group with a 1:20:923.
Group B would see a bit more of an interesting start as an incident between Kush Maini and Laurens Van Hoepen would see the latter out of the session and the ART driver with a 3-place grid penalty for both races. The rest of the session would go by uninterrupted, with Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov topping the session, but it wouldn’t be enough to take the top spot with Invicta having the perfect recovery to take pole position with Rafael Camara.
Noel Leon would line up for his second sprint pole of the season with DAMS driver Roman Bilinski alongside him after Joshua Durksen received a 3-place penalty after qualifying. It was a rare uninterrupted race in Formula 2 terms without any stoppages or delays, with minimal overtaking as the top three took the checkered flag in the order they started, with Leon leading home Bilinksi and Mini to complete the podium.
As all eyes turned to the main F2 event of the weekend. It wouldn’t be until the pit stop phase that things would start to be shaken up, where a clear potential issue for teams began to arise. The warm-up of the super soft tyre seemed to be trickier than expected, leaving drivers struggling to gain temperature and keep positions on their out laps. One driver who seemingly struggled more than most was none other than race leader Camara, who found himself sliding around as he urged his tyre to come up to temperature. A fast-approaching Tsolov, who had pitted 2 laps previously, quickly caught up to the Italian, putting immense pressure on the 2025 F3 champ.
A lock-up into turn 1 as he continued to struggle would see Camara out of the race, almost bringing the Redbull Junior with him. As the last of the drivers pitted for their mandatory stop, it would be Tsolov and Dunne who would find themselves ahead of the chasing pack as a battle brewed for P3. Kush Maini found himself emerging in P3 on cold tyres as drivers such as Beganovic, Miyata and Stenshorne closed him in looking for a last lap pass. Dino Beganovic would take the final step on the podium, joining Tsolov and Dunne on top of one of the most memorable podiums on the calendar.
It was a welcome victory for Nikola Tsolov after a bad run over the last two rounds, with 3 non-points finishes coming into the Monaco weekend. The Bulgarian spoke about how it felt like redemption for him in the post-race press conference. “I felt like it was kind of a redemption for me just because I've had a few tough weekends in Miami. Then in Canada, it was just a messy weekend. I think we had so much pace there and it was just a big missed opportunity, but I'm glad to see we're fighting for the Feature Race wins in every weekend”.
It was a fourth podium of the season for Alex Dunne, making him the only driver to have stood on the podium in every round this season. When asked about his consistency over the season, the Irishman spoke of the importance of picking up points every weekend. “Just to stay out of trouble. I think just keeping our nose clean and just picking up the points is all I'm trying to do. I think there's no point going into every weekend trying really hard to put it on pole and win the race. If we can just be in the top five all the time, all the way until the end of the year, then that should score pretty good points”.
A second feature race podium of the season for Dino Beganovic after a mixed start to the season had the Swedish Ferrari junior optimistic about the season ahead. “We have the momentum. We have had the momentum basically since Australia. Without the DNFs from technical issues, it would have been a different story by now. Fighting at the front in the future is always a good sign, but I always feel like we have had the momentum. We're just going to keep going at it”.
It's back-to-back races for Formula 2 and Formula 3 as the grid heads to one of the most well-known circuits amongst these junior series drivers, Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
