Invicta Racing’s Rafael Câmara got his 2026 F2 season off to a strong start at the 2026 Australian GP, claiming a 2nd-place finish on debut. The reigning Formula 3 Champion arrived to the championship with significant expectations after his dominant F3 campaign, but his weekend featured a mix of highs and lows. The Brazilian qualified 6th, finished 11th in the Sprint Race, and ultimately secured a podium in Sunday’s Feature Race.
Reflecting on how the race unfolded in the post-Feature Press Conference, where Pit Debrief was in attendance, Câmara expressed satisfaction with how his first F2 weekend unfolded, saying: “Yeah, I would say it was a very positive start for the championship, especially after yesterday I was very close to get a podium and I think getting done with P2 today I’m quite happy. It was a clean race and happy to end the weekend like this.”
Could Câmara have challenged Tsolov for the win?
When asked if it was possible to bring the fight to race winner Nikola Tsolov, the 20 year-old admitted he was unsure it would have been possible, noting how strong DRS was despite their strong pace. However, after passing Nicolás Varrone on track, there ultimately wasn’t enough laps left to bring the fight to the Campos Racing driver.
“I mean, it’s difficult to know. I think probably it will be a bit more interesting because I think DRS was very powerful and I think I kind of stayed there, and we were going to see how it was going to be in the end. But yeah, it didn’t make it easier.”
“I thought actually that he [Varrone] was going to try to attack Tsolov but he didn’t have enough space to attack and I just wanted to try as quick as possible to overtake him. And then after that, pace was looking good but obviously it was not enough laps. But yeah, it was a good end of the race.”
Off to a good start in 2026
There is no doubt that the Ferrari-backed driver has hit the ground running in 2026. The Brazilian entered he 2026 F2 Australian GP as one of the highly-rated drivers to watch, and—much like the start to his Formula 3 campaign last year—this podium marks a strong beginning to his rookie F2 season.
Câmara said: “Yeah, Melbourne went pretty well last year and I think also this year was going everything very well. Quali almost ruined everything because also after the red flag it was quite a big mess to open the lap. Everyone was very slow and was just trying to open the lap because we knew that closing the lap for sure we’re going to improve a lot.”
“But yeah, I think we managed in the end just to keep in the top ten that was good enough to fight for points. And yeah, yesterday was looking very good as well. The pace, car was feeling good in the race and we knew that today was just to keep everything clean that was going to be a good result.”
Building the foundations of a title fight
The 20 year-old has built a reputation for entering a championship and immediately establishing himself as a contender. Despite the promising start to the season, Câmara isn’t complacent and remains aware of the long campaign that lies ahead.
“Yeah it was a good start of the season but I think it’s very early to know if we’re going to be fighting or not for the championship. Obviously this is the goal. I think always when you join something, when you join the category you always want to win.”
“But of course, it’ll be a long championship and we just keep working in this direction and I think we’re going to be in a good place through the season. But yeah, I’m happy how we started and hopefully we can continue with this momentum.”
With his rookie F2 season marking a new chapter in his career, the Brazilian isn’t changing his mindset or approach to a championship fight, even while acknowledging there’s still room for improvement on his Saturdays.
The 20 year-old said: “I would say that it’s very similar the mindset. I’m not doing anything particularly different but yeah it looks like the Sunday has been quite good. But yeah I think I would just keep working the same way. Maybe it can be a bit better Saturday, but yeah let’s see. I think it’s been nice so far so I’ll just keep working in the same way and keep going in this good direction.”
Picking the right battles in a chaotic race
Echoing similar sentiments to Tsolov, the Brazilian explained how managing the chaos and picking the right battles on track can help drivers capitalise on strong results, ultimately putting them in contention for a championship fight.
“Yeah I would say very similar to Niko [Tsolov]. Yeah I think you just need to be quite clever where you go especially in races, where we’ve been very chaotic. So I think it helps a lot to make sure that you’re in the right position at the right time.”
“Also with me, it happened yesterday that I got a bit too excited in the wrong place that cost us probably the podium. But today again, everything was very smooth and we managed to do a good job. Even at the pit stop for the first time during the race, I got a bit out so I was thinking a bit how it was going to be the pit stop.”
“But everything went very well, so yeah I think consistent through the season will be always, I think the key for fights for the championship.”
However, regarding to how the race unfolded, Câmara shared that he and Invicta Racing weren’t fazed by much and stuck to their original plan.
He said: “Yeah for me, we stick to the plan. No big difference in terms of strategy. Obviously we’re a bit longer because of the safety car, but in the end it was pretty simple and also Varrone on the other strategy was quite okay, because we still had a lot of laps at the end so he couldn’t really extract the best of this super soft. So yeah it was a good nice and calm race.”
Staying calm under pressure
In what was an eventful race, Câmara explained that the main focus was staying clean and avoiding incidents. After witnessing the Rodin Motorsport teammates crash at the start, he remained calm, knowing he had a strong car with pace to fight for the lead.
“Yeah very similar for me. Just trying to keep it clean. Also we’re very early in the season so you don’t want to really crash so just try to be on track. Yeah in the beginning was the crash of the Rodins, and when I saw that just when I was like just thinking, don’t don’t crash yet just avoid the mess and after that I was quite calm that we had a good pace, had a good car and we were already fighting for P1.”
The Brazilian said he worked closely with his engineer to ensure everything was in order, particularly managing his first-ever pit stop. Despite a small gap to Tsolov and capitalising on Dino Beganovic’s issues, he was pleased with how his race unfolded.
He added: “So I just wanted to speak with the engineer to make sure that everything was in place and make sure that we were in the right direction to do the things properly, with the time management and then also I think for the first time doing the pit stop you get a bit more nervous. Just want to make sure that everything is done properly, but in the end it was very well and after that was just focussing.”
“I mean that time was a bit long at the gap to Niko [Tsolov] but yeah it was just about managing the pace. Dino [Beganovic] unfortunately had the issue, but yeah in the end was a good race for us and was quite happy with that.”
Câmara leaves the 2026 F2 Australian GP with no regrets
When asked by Pit Debrief which phase of the race he felt he drove best and where there was still room for improvement, Câmara said: “Yeah also on my side, I think was quite okay all the race and then maybe with [Nicolás] Varrone could be attack him a bit earlier and try to close the gap a bit early to Niko [Tsolov]. But I think then all the whole race was pretty well managed, also how we finished with tyres I think was good.”
“So yeah, I think the whole race was quite doing the right decisions and good way of driving, so I was very very happy with how we finished the race.”
