Campos Racing and its drivers enjoyed a superb start to the season at the Albert Park Circuit, the venue hosting the opening round of the FIA Formula 2 Championship. Tsolov dominated Sunday’s feature race to secure his maiden victory in the category and move into the championship lead. León, making his debut in the series, finished second on Saturday. These results also put the Alzira-based team at the top of the teams’ standings
Veni, Vidi, Vici. That perfectly sums up the start of the 2026 FIA Formula 2 season at Albert Park for Campos Racing. Nikola Tsolov and Noel León delivered a spectacular opening weekend in Melbourne, putting the Spanish squad on the podium in both races. The “Bulgarian Lion” claimed his first F2 victory in Sunday’s race, achieving a win of remarkable quality in just his sixth appearance in the category. León, meanwhile, secured a podium finish on his very first outing in the FIA’s premier feeder series, climbing to second place after executing several impressive overtakes.
Friday’s free practice session already showed the strong pace of the Campos Racing cars on the Australian circuit. In a relatively incident-free session, León started strongly by setting the second-fastest time with a lap of 1m29.545s. Tsolov finished fourth with a best time of 1m29.668s.
A few hours later, in the early hours of the morning in Spain, qualifying took place and featured the red flags that had been absent earlier in the day. On their first flying laps, both Tsolov and León immediately placed themselves among the frontrunners, running fifth and sixth respectively. On his second push lap, the Bulgarian driver provisionally claimed pole position with a time of 1m29.381s. From that moment on, however, two red flags disrupted the tactical plans for the decisive part of the session. Ultimately, all drivers had just one final attempt before the clock hit zero. León and Tsolov delivered laps of 1m29.076s and 1m29.123s respectively, securing fourth and fifth place on the grid.
Saturday’s sprint race, scheduled for 23 laps, demanded careful tyre management of the soft compound on track temperatures exceeding 40°C. Tsolov and León lined up sixth and seventh on the reversed-grid starting order for the top ten. When the lights went out, both Campos Racing drivers avoided the early incidents and moved forward in the standings. At the end of the opening lap, León had already climbed to fourth while Tsolov, driving the Red Bull-liveried car, was running sixth Unfortunately for the Bulgarian, a large part of his chances faded on lap three. With positions constantly changing, Tsolov began pressuring Kush Maini for third place. However, while battling, he ran slightly wide at Turn 1 and dropped to eighth. At that moment León launched his attack on Maini and took over third position. Meanwhile, things went from bad to worse for Tsolov when he was hit by Colton Herta at Turn 4, causing him to lose further ground. With damage to his front wing, Tsolov was among the drivers who pitted during the safety car period on lap 14 to replace it and switch to the super-soft tyres in a bid to salvage something from the race. With five laps remaining and racing resumed under green, León set his sights on second place held by Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak. The Mexican driver launched his move with three laps to go, overtaking the Thai driver with an excellent manoeuvre at Turn 11. From there to the finish, León pulled clear of his pursuers and crossed the line in second place. Tsolov, stuck in traffic and compromised by his pit stop, finished 17th.
Sunday’s feature race, scheduled for 33 laps, took place in cooler conditions due to its earlier start time, which helped with tyre management. The optimal strategy was to start on the super-soft compound, extend the stint as long as possible, and then switch to soft tyres. This was the plan adopted by Campos Racing for both drivers, as well as most of the grid. When the lights went out, Tsolov made an excellent start, crossing the line at the end of lap one already in third place behind Martinius Stenshorne and Alex Dunne. León was less fortunate this time, the Mexican making contact with Oliver Goethe and damaging his front wing. However, the situation at the front soon changed. Stenshorne and Dunne collided under braking at Turn 1, with Tsolov skilfully avoiding the incident and inheriting the lead just as the safety car was deployed. Racing resumed on lap six, and Tsolov controlled Rafael Câmara before setting two very fast laps to build a margin ahead of the pit stops. León had pitted on lap seven, while Tsolov came in on the following lap. Thanks to the flawless work of the Campos Racing mechanics, he rejoined in third place while remaining the virtual race leader. With nearly three seconds in hand over Câmara, the safety car returned to the track when Dino Beganovic stopped with a technical problem. This situation allowed Nico Varrone, who had yet to pit, to do so while retaining the lead. Racing resumed on lap 22. Although Varrone was running on super-soft tyres, Tsolov quickly attacked the Argentine driver and reclaimed the lead. From that point to the finish, his race management was worthy of a champion. He maintained a comfortable margin first over Varrone and then over Câmara, eventually crossing the finish line as the winner with a one-and-a-half-second advantage over the Brazilian. León, after recovering several positions, finished fourteenth.
After the opening two races of the season, Tsolov leads the drivers’ championship with a seven-point advantage over Câmara and Laurens van Hoepen. León, thanks to his Saturday podium, sits eighth with eight points. In the teams’ standings, Campos Racing also holds the top position with 33 points.
The next round of the championship will take place at the Bahrain International Circuit on 11–12 April.
