As he embarks on his fourth season in Formula 2 (F2), Kush Maini finds himself with a fourth different team, but this time, the Indian driver believes he has found the environment he needs to finally deliver a complete championship campaign in 2026 with ART Grand Prix.
He joins the team after a rollercoaster three-year stint in the series. Reflecting on his journey so far, while speaking in a virtual media conference with Pit Debrief in attendance, he admitted that while flashes of speed have never been in doubt, consistency across an entire season has proven elusive.
“Yeah, obviously. Yeah, fourth year, four different teams. I don’t think many people have done that,” Maini said candidly. “My first year obviously was very strong. Second year started strong and went a bit downhill, and last year was just very, very difficult, very confusing.”
Despite securing a lights to flag victory in the 2025 F2 Monaco Sprint Race, Maini has yet to string together sustained results required to mount a title challenge. That reality ultimately drove his decision to seek a fresh start with ART in 2026.
“So obviously, I wanted a place that could just help me grow as a driver and help me show what I can do. Obviously, I’ve pulled it, I’ve won races, but I just haven’t done it consistently yet and I’ve struggled to put a year together. And ART saw that.”
ART with a challenging track record
The partnership comes at an intriguing time for both parties. ART, long regarded as one of the benchmark teams in the junior categories, has endured a challenging couple of seasons by its own lofty standards. Maini sees parallels between his personal quest for resurgence and the team’s determination to return to the front.
“They’ve also, you know, for ART standards, they’ve been struggling the last couple of years. So we’re sort of in the same boat,” he said. “And I think I can bring my experience to help them with this new car, and they can help me, I think, get the best out of myself. So I think this is the team I really needed, a team that knows what it takes to win championships. And I’m really happy I’m here.”
Experience on his side in 2026
Experience, Maini believes, will be one of his greatest assets in F2 in 2026. While his results have fluctuated, he maintains that his underlying pace has remained consistent since his rookie campaign.
“If you look at the way F2’s gone for me, my first season with Campos was actually my best qualifying results over the year,” he noted. “So actually, like, pace-wise, I feel you get on top of the pace quite quick. It’s just about, obviously, F2 can be very strange.”
Maini pointed to the closing stages of last season as a reminder of his capabilities. After a difficult and, in his words, “confusing” year, a late opportunity in Formula 1 machinery restored his confidence.
“And last year, honestly, I was very confused over the year, and then I got into the F1 car at the end of the year. And then suddenly we were back on pace with some of the best in the world. So that was sort of like relief that I still know how to drive.”
For Maini, the key to unlocking his full potential in 2026 lies less in outright speed in F2 and more in stability, mindset and team chemistry.
“But I think it’s just about being in a good place with the team, working well with your engineer, being in a positive mindset,‘ he said. “Obviously understanding that in F2 you’re going to have a lot of bad days, sometimes very confusing days. And it’s just about learning what you can from those and pushing forward.”
“So I think that experience will really help me this year, especially with ART. But pace-wise, I think it’s been the same really the last four years. So I think the experience I can take is really just the mindset and understanding the bad days and moving forward.”
