Spanish driver Bruno del Pino will return to Formula 3 (F3) in 2026 with Van Amersfoort Racing (VAR), embarking on his second campaign in the championship after a challenging rookie season with MP Motorsport. The 19-year-old joins Jesse Carrasquedo at VAR, having left MP Motorsport, a team he had been with since 2023, in search of a fresh start and a platform capable of delivering the consistency that eluded him last year.
A career built from the ground up
Del Pino made his single-seater debut in 2022, competing in the Spanish F4 Championship with Drivex School before jumping into the FIA Motorsport Games Formula 4 Cup later that year, where he claimed success with a third-place finish in the main race. In 2023, he stepped up to Eurocup-3 with MP Motorsport, finishing seventh overall, and made a one-off appearance in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA) at Spielberg.
The Spanish driver then opened 2024 with a debut in the Formula Regional Middle East Championship before returning for another season in Eurocup-3, where he enjoyed the most successful campaign of his single-seater career to date. He finished third in the overall standings, taking three wins, one pole position, and five further podiums, form that earned him a promotion to F3 for 2025.
A tough rookie season
Del Pino’s first F3 season proved to be a stern test. He carried his MP Motorsport partnership into the new championship but struggled to find the consistency his Eurocup-3 performances had promised, eventually finishing 23rd in the Drivers’ Championship with a single podium to his name.
His campaign began on a difficult note in Melbourne, where he retired from the Sprint Race and could only manage P23 in the Feature Race. He gathered his first points of the season in Bahrain with a P9 Feature Race finish, and momentum grew the following week at Imola, where he delivered his standout performance of the year, claiming his maiden F3 podium in the Sprint Race.
Austria offered further encouragement when he qualified fourth, just shy of the top three. But a run of pointless finishes followed before he bounced back with consecutive points at Silverstone’s Feature Race and the Spa Sprint Race. Those results proved to be his final points of the season, as the closing rounds brought nothing home.
Speaking to the media including Pit Debrief ahead of the 2026 F3 season, del Pino was candid about where things went wrong: “Last season wasn’t the very best for me. I struggled quite much more than I was expected. Also, in terms of performance in quali runs, I think I showed that there is space to be within the top five, as I did in various occasions. Then the races didn’t really go many times as it was [planned].”
A fresh start at VAR
The move to VAR marks del Pino’s first team change since 2023, and he has wasted no time in getting to work with his new F3 outfit. A detailed debrief of his 2025 season formed a key part of his preparation during a visit to the team’s workshop in the Netherlands.
“Watching it when I was in the workshop in Holland with Van Amersfoort, we saw my season last year more specifically to see where there was things to improve,” he said. “We saw that the statistics where I should have been wasn’t really where I was last year. So yes, just trying to put everything together towards this season.”
VAR showed flashes of genuine pace in 2025 but struggled to sustain it across a full campaign, a pattern del Pino is acutely aware of and determined to help change. “Seeing that VAR can be a team that can be consistently in the top 10 also takes into account that we are the drivers, we’re the ones that need to put the car into the top 10. It’s all about putting everything together, the machine and the driver to get the results.”
His mindset entering 2026 is equally clear. “The mentality has gone a bit more towards a more championship-wise, towards more top five wise. But I think it’s what I’m capable of. I think the team VAR is capable of.”
Melbourne in mind
With pre-season testing behind him, albeit disrupted by illness that cost him his first day at the wheel, del Pino’s immediate focus turns to the season opener in Melbourne. Having raced there in 2025, he acknowledges that experience gives him a small edge, though he refuses to take anything for granted.
“For me, it’s trying to get as much confidence as I can to the car,” he said. “I have a little advantage towards some of the rookie drivers, which I was in Melbourne and they haven’t. But the field is really, really competitive and all the drivers are up to pace quite early. So for me, it’s just trying to apply everything that last season wasn’t the very best and trying to apply it and then gain as much confidence into the first laps as I can.”
The weight of experience
As one of VAR’s new F3 drivers, del Pino heads into 2026 as the experienced head in the team’s line-up. Alongside him sits teammate Enzo Deligny, who arrives from FRECA with a strong record and plenty of momentum of his own.
“Obviously Enzo coming from FRECA with a really great position and standing is also demonstrating that he’s a really quick driver,” del Pino acknowledged. “Even though I’m a second year driver, doesn’t mean that’s going to be easier, no more difficult. I always take a challenge, it’s a really difficult challenge to push myself to the limit and trying to see what I’m capable of.”
“It’s in a kind of way, some extra pressure, but some extra relief. I know some tracks, I know how the car behaves, I know how the championship behaves more or less. Coming as a second year is obviously in a kind of way more relief, but also a bit more pressure.”
