The drivers to watch out for in F2 and F3

All eyes on Herta

“This is my last shot at reaching F1.” That’s how Colton Herta described his unprecedented move from IndyCar to Formula 2 for 2026 when it was announced back in September.

It would have been easy for Herta to just continue his career Stateside. He has been one of IndyCar’s more successful drivers of late. He has failed to win the title, but he finished third in the 2020 championship and second in 2024.

Herta’s F1 dream looked all but over after he failed to secure a superlicence when Red Bull showed interest for a 2023 AlphaTauri drive, but Cadillac’s nascent project in the world championship is throwing him a lifeline.

The American team signed the Californian to a test and development role; it is sending him to F2 so he can collect the last few superlicence points he needs and, most importantly, convince the team he’s got what it takes to succeed. “He’s got to earn it, right?” said Cadillac F1 CEO Dan Towriss, who set a top-10 finish in the drivers’ standings as Herta’s goal.

This won’t be as easy as it may seem. Although Herta’s pedigree stands out, F2 is a notoriously tricky series to debut in. A key factor will be how quickly he gets to grips with the Pirelli rubber, which requires substantial management and will be familiar to most of his rivals, who have raced on the Italian tyres in F3.

Hitech is one of the better places for Herta to challenge for decent results, having enjoyed success with Paul Aron, Luke Browning and Dino Beganovic in the past couple of years – no title, admittedly, but a combined 21 podium finishes.

Can Camara make it trio of consecutive drivers to win the F3 and F2 titles?

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Camara in the footsteps of Bortoleto and Fornaroli

There has been an intriguing pipeline of late in F1’s feeder series: F3 champion with Trident to F2 champion at Invicta Racing in consecutive seasons. This was the path taken by Gabriel Bortoleto and Leonardo Fornaroli in the past couple of years, and Rafael Camara is looking to follow in their footsteps.

The Brazilian, a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy since 2021, has won the Formula Regional European and F3 titles back to back. He was especially impressive in the latter, taking five pole positions out of a possible 10. Camara’s dominance was such that he took three lights-to-flag victories in feature races.

But Camara’s most remarkable feat may have been his Monza weekend. Exceeding track limits in qualifying left him 30th on the grid for both contests, but he fought his way up to 12th in the sprint before a post-race track-limits penalty dropped him to 25th. In the feature, he charged from 30th to fifth. “It’s probably one of the best races of my life,” he rejoiced at the time.

How well can he do in F2? The title will be a tall order, but anything is possible. Among other rookies, do not discount Red Bull’s Nikola Tsolov and former McLaren protege Martinius Stenshorne. Both shone in F3 last year and will be racing with Campos Racing and Rodin Motorsport respectively.

Irishman Dunne will be targeting a title fight in F2

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Outsiders who could spice it up

Other than Herta and Camara, the most obvious title contenders will be returnees Alex Dunne and Dino Beganovic.

After a patchy F3 season in 2024 – his deal came at the last minute – Dunne had an exciting F2 rookie campaign, though his uncompromising approach to wheel-to-wheel combat sometimes proved costly. He is the highest-placed returnee from 2025, in which he won two feature races and took fifth in the standings, and stays with Rodin Motorsport.

The former McLaren junior – who became a free agent of his own volition, but has since joined the Alpine junior ranks – particularly stood out in a wet Spa feature race he comfortably led from early on to the finish, only for a start-procedure penalty to drop Dunne to ninth.

Beganovic, the 2022 Formula Regional European champion, had an up-and-down first half of 2025 with Hitech. The Swede took pole at Imola but did not convert it into victory when a bold round-the-outside move on Luke Browning ended up with a trip to the grass.

The Ferrari academy member finished the last 11 races in the top nine and is now switching to the DAMS team that won four races with Jak Crawford last year, plus another courtesy of Kush Maini.

Alpine junior Gabriele Mini’s first F2 campaign was underwhelming given his record (Italian F4 champion and runner-up in F3), so he’ll attempt to bounce back, switching from Prema to an MP Motorsport squad that enjoyed success with third-placed Richard Verschoor last year.

Meanwhile, Joshua Duerksen was the big post-summer-break surprise. The Paraguayan, who only ever enjoyed moderate success in the junior categories, took six podium finishes in the last four rounds of 2025, including victory in the Yas Marina feature finale. With a switch from AIX to the proven Invicta squad while joining the Mercedes F1 team as a development driver, Duerksen has all cards in hand to prove his potential.

Stromsted is set to be one of the F3 title favourites going into the season

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F3’s likely title contenders

With none of the top five F3 drivers from 2025 re-enlisting, occasional frontrunners from last year can now jump to the front.

The favourite may be Noah Stromsted. The 18-year-old Dane was the second-best rookie last season, with only Trident team-mate Rafael Camara outperforming him. Theoretically, he should now emerge as a natural leader in a team that has won the past three drivers’ championships.

Stromsted held the runner-up spot three rounds into the 2025 season, until his strong qualifying form deteriorated – sixth on average in the first six rounds, but 15th in the last four. Now a former Mercedes junior, he has admitted to having too many ups and downs last year, and therefore has much to prove.

Unlike Stromsted, Theophile Nael, Tuukka Taponen and Alessandro Giusti failed to clinch their maiden victories last year, but they did collect a few podium finishes. All three lacked consistency but, when Nael did qualify well, he converted it into strong feature-race results. A Spanish F4 champion and Macau Grand Prix winner, the Frenchman is switching from Van Amersfoort Racing to the Campos Racing squad that took last year’s teams’ title, while Taponen and Giusti, under the aegis of Ferrari and Williams respectively, team up at MP Motorsport.

Ugo Ugochukwu and Louis Sharp should not be overlooked, despite their disappointing 2025 seasons. Ugochukwu struggled to 16th and ended up leaving the McLaren academy; also a Macau GP winner, he has just won the Formula Regional Oceania Trophy and is moving from Prema to Campos. He could be in for a better campaign this time around.

Sharp, meanwhile, had a remarkable racing record prior to his F3 step-up, winning the British F4 and GB3 titles. It was therefore surprising that he took just three points finishes with Rodin on his way to a lowly 26th in the standings.

“Last season was probably the toughest I’ve had in motorsport,” says the Kiwi. “F3 is a big step up, definitely; not knowing the circuits was really tough. I’m turning up to most of these tracks for the first time in practice – with F3, you do one or two laps, then you go straight into qualifying, so it’s pretty difficult. There’s multiple reasons why 2025 didn’t go well, but I think I’ve learned a lot from them and improved a lot because of them.”

He’ll try again, seeking more consistency – especially in qualifying – with Prema: “If I can be in the top seven, eight every weekend, that’s what it takes to put a solid campaign together. Obviously I want to be fighting for wins, fighting for pole positions, but the main thing for me is just consistency.”

Slater is the latest big British hopeful coming through the junior ranks

Photo by: Macau Grand Prix Organizing Committee

Slater leads exciting rookie crop

If one youngster might steal the show and walk in Oscar Piastri’s footsteps to triumph as an F3 rookie, it could be Freddie Slater.

A European and World Karting champion, Slater has also won the Italian F4 title and the Formula Regional European Championship, and was second in this winter’s Formula Regional Oceania contest behind the more experienced Ugochukwu. His performance made him the very first driver to join Audi’s nascent F1 academy.

Slater will race at Trident and is already showing pace, having topped the Barcelona pre-season test by a whopping three tenths from team-mate Stromsted. “I knew we were in a good place, but I didn’t expect to be as fast as we were,” admits the Warwickshire-born racer.

Slater and Stromsted will be joined at Trident by another promising rookie, Matteo De Palo. Recently introduced to the McLaren driver programme, the Italian took the runner-up spot in last year’s Formula Regional European standings, behind Slater. Enzo Deligny and Pedro Clerot, who tied on points for third place, are also moving up, with Van Amersfoort and Rodin respectively.

It will also be worth keeping an eye on 2024 French F4 champion Taito Kato. The Japanese was seventh in Formula Regional European but was the third-best rookie, admittedly far behind Slater, and might have potential to unlock as he moves up – again with ART Grand Prix.

Two other promising rookies are bypassing Formula Regional European as they jump up to F3. MP Motorsport’s Mattia Colnaghi won the 2024 Spanish F4 title and topped Eurocup-3 last year, but F3 success still won’t come easy to the 17-year-old Red Bull junior. It will be an even taller order for another Red Bull protege, reigning British F4 champion Fionn McLaughlin. It’s a huge step up to F3, even though he gained valuable experience in Formula Regional Oceania over the winter. You can hardly expect him to match the other rookies in what is just his second year in single-seaters.

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The F2 and F3 seasons get under way this weekend in Melbourne

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