MP Motorsport’s Gabriele Minì executed a well-timed strategy to secure P2 during the Feature Race at the 2026 F2 Austrian GP, leaving Spielberg with 107 championship points.
After finishing P5 in Saturday’s Sprint Race, Minì lined up P4 for Sunday’s Feature Race before managing to move up to P2 in the opening laps. The Italian crucially pitted on Lap 9, switching from super soft to soft tyres, briefly rejoining ahead of effective race leader Nikola Tsolov.
On Lap 26, Minì had to take quick avoiding action when PREMA Racing’s Mari Boya stopped on track at Turn 3. The incident triggered a brief virtual safety car, allowing Minì to close in and overtake Alex Dunne at the restart, making his way up behind Tsolov to ultimately finish P2.
Minì analyzes his 2026 F2 Austrian Feature Race
Reflecting on his race during the FIA F2 post-race press conference, attended by Pit Debrief, Minì began by explaining how he managed to avoid what could have been a significant collision with Boya.
“I don’t know let me be honest, I was fighting with Alex [Dunne] and I got a really good exit and I was using all the track and I just saw him stopped, broke, turned fully on the right and hope for the really good, but I really got scared there. I just saw him in the last moment and it’s like a car appears in front of you, you stopped when you are getting, you know, first of all you’re getting a good exit and you’re in a fight. So just came by surprise really. I was really lucky not to hit him.”
Minì continued by analysing his pit-stop timing, which proved key, as it allowed him to rejoin ahead of his rivals after extending his first stint by one lap.
“No, I did the call because, I mean, we did it together of course, but the tyres felt good when Alex boxed… No, when Noel [León] had boxed first and even when Nikola boxed, I felt like I could do one more, and that’s when we boxed, and it went quite well. We came out in front, of course not easy on cold tyres, but still, I think it was the right moment.”
Keeping an eye on the championship
Retaining his Drivers’ Standings lead with his strong P5 and P2 finishes, Minì leaves Round 6 with a total of 108 points. However, now that Tsolov has secured the Austrian Feature Race win, he has closed the gap from 6 points to just 2, slowly closing in on Minì.
When asked whether he focuses on the championship race by race or simply lets it flow, the Alpine junior shared:
“Well, of course, you I always say this, but I mean I keep on saying the same. In the end, it’s about maximising everything, but in a way, as Nikola mentioned, you also think about it, because you know if you are P2 and in front there is someone with zero points, you’re not going to risk or, you know, to try and be as aggressive as you would, for example, with Nikola, you know. So it’s something to think about, but it’s still really early on. We’re not even halfway to the season so it’s still a very long way.”
Double podium for MP Motorsport
This result also marked a strong weekend for MP Motorsport, with Minì’s P2 and teammate Oliver Goethe’s P3 lifting the team to second in the Teams’ Standings.
Speaking about the double podium, he said: “Yeah, I mean it’s very good, encouraging, and for sure it gives us a good momentum going into the next round. As Ollie said, we always had the speed, and it’s very good, you know, to show it today and to both be able to be on the podium. Also, it was my engineer’s birthday, so we gave him a good gift.”
Despite the MP Motorsport duo adopting contrasting tyre strategies, both approaches proved equally effective. Minì started on the super soft tyre before switching to softs, while Goethe ran the opposite strategy, completing a late pit stop before charging through the field.
“Well, to be honest, it was not even something we even thought about. The first thing we thought was about option-prime for me and prime-option for Ollie,” he revealed when asked about the team’s strategy decision.
“It’s usually the quickest strategy but it’s more risky to start with the prime tyre and because he was starting a bit more in the back you know instead of having to double stack because from previous years, let’s say that undercut has always been really powerful so we didn’t want to you know end up, one that we would have had to double stack, second to have you know one of the two drivers to extend. So it was pretty straightforward to be honest. In the end, as you mentioned, we both are on the podium, and it shows that we did a good job.”
Leading the championship through consistency
Despite still having 8 rounds left, Minì’s P2 result in the Austrian GP Feature Race marks his seventh podium finish of the 2026 F2 season. His consistency has been a key factor in his championship lead, with the 21-year-old scoring points in all but one race so far.
“Yeah, I’ve been quite a lot of times to be honest in those press conferences lately, which is very good and you know hopefully we can keep on doing this for the whole season,” he noted, reflecting on his impressive first part of the season.
“We know that F2 is usually not an easy championship, and where consistency is really important and it shows me and as you mentioned both me and Nicola have been here quite often and both me and him are 1-2 in the championship.”
He added: “So it shows that you know the level is really high. We know that, as I mentioned before it’s really early on in the championship, but for sure the job that we’re doing I mean and the results show it’s been pretty good and you know together with our team we have to keep on doing the same.”
Minì on managing the extreme heat at 2026 Austrian GP
Racing during the European heat wave proved difficult for many drivers, especially when needing to manage tyre degradation in DRS trains. However, for Minì, the Feature Race proved less intense than the Sprint Race, in which track temperatures reached 50°C.
“Yeah, I mean it was a lot easier than yesterday. Also the temperatures were a lot lower, so that for sure helped, and the DRS and you know the slipstream gain is so much that you can just afford to, as Nicola mentioned, kind of cruise around in the corners and you know just drive calmly and don’t overstress any axle whether it’s front or rear and then at the end once again he showed.”
“I tried to attack Nicola at the beginning. I just didn’t manage to because it was also the DRS and so I just stepped back and tried to use the tyres at the end a tiny bit more but it was still good enough to finish in the podium,” he concluded.
