Gabriele Minì leaves the 2026 F2 Silverstone round determined to unlock more performance with MP Motorsport after losing the championship lead to Nikola Tsolov.
The Italian driver faced an up-and-down round in Silverstone, taking P5 in Free Practice, qualifying P10, finishing the Sprint Race in P2, and finally taking P6 in the Feature Race. Notably, after controlling the Sprint Race from reverse-grid pole, Minì looked set for victory before a mistake on the final lap opened the door for Tsolov to dive down the inside and take both the win and the championship lead.
Tsolov went on to claim Feature Race victory as well, building a 17-point lead over Minì in the Drivers’ Standings
Minì: “We need to really step up our game”
Reflecting on his 2026 F2 Silverstone round, the MP Motorsport driver shared: “It was an OK weekend to be honest. We saved it by staying in the top 10 in Qualifying. We knew that the pace was never really strong, starting already from FP and in quali.”
“In the race yesterday, after checking data, we saw that we had some issues with the rear brakes. So I couldn’t stop the car as I wanted on the last lap. We lost the win, but clearly the pace was not strong enough to win, especially in clean air.”
Looking at the positives, he continued: “But we still held on to second. And today, once again, we did a good race, I think, overall we executed it well, we did nice overtakes, a good pit stop, and it was just good enough for P6. Starting from P10 is not bad, for sure, when you’re on pace. But clearly, we need to really step up our game if we want to fight for wins consistently.”
Searching for more wins
Minì’s consistency has been key in his championship fight, with the Alpine Junior scoring points in all but one race so far, while claiming 8 podiums. However, Minì hasn’t secured a race victory since his impressive 2026 F2 Miami Feature Race win.
As Tsolov has now claimed 6 wins this season, Minì looks to extract more from his MP Motorsport car to consistently fight for victories.
“I feel like I’m driving quite well,” he shared. “Not a lot of mistakes, to be honest, taking the little opportunities when we can, which is, once again, what we really want and what we really need. The only thing is that, clearly, apart from maybe two weekends, we have not been the quickest. And that’s quite clear.”
“We have always been the second quickest on so many occasions. For example, in Austria, or even yesterday, we were quick, but there was always someone that was a bit quicker.”
Despite losing the lead to Tsolov, Minì still holds a strong advantage over his other rivals. Rafael Câmara and Alex Dunne both currently sit more than 30 points behind the Italian, having also endured a mediocre Round 7.
With this in mind, he added: “It doesn’t help, for sure, for race victories. But we have consistently scored points, even this weekend. We were not the quickest, but overall, I think we ended up gaining on both Alex and Rafa.”
“Of course, we lost out to Nikola, because he got two wins. But, now it’s time to step up our game if we really want to fight for the championship.”
Onto Round 8 at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
With Round 8 at Spa-Francorchamps up next on the 2026 F2 calendar, Minì now aims to take the lessons from Silverstone and focus on finding more pace.
Looking back at the 2025 F2 Belgian weekend, where he raced for PREMA Racing, Miní said: “Spa was probably one of our strongest weekends. We had an issue at the pitstop, losing 10 seconds and losing out on a possible podium or win. I’m not sure what the team did last year, but I think they were always in the top ten though, which is good.”
“We know where we can improve even on this weekend and they will work, knowing what happened last year. It’s never been a bad track also for me. So, we’ll just see how it goes.”
