The 2026 FIA Formula 3 (F3) season continued to deliver plenty of drama at Spa-Francorchamps at Belgian GP, with Round 6 producing breakthrough performances, championship twists and some much-needed momentum shifts. From maiden victories to career-best results and another strong weekend for one of the title contenders, there were several drivers who left Belgium with plenty to celebrate. Here are the biggest winners and losers from the 2026 F3 Spa-Francorchamps Round.
Winners of the 2026 F3 Spa-Francorchamps Round
Ernesto Rivera – Campos Racing
Ernesto Rivera was arguably the standout driver of the entire Spa-Francorchamps weekend.
The Campos Racing driver arrived in Belgium after a frustrating Silverstone round, where he crossed the line second in the Feature Race behind Matteo De Palo before being classified lower following a post-race penalty. He responded in exactly the right way at Spa, securing his maiden Feature Race victory in FIA Formula 3.
Rivera started Sunday’s race from fourth and initially showed patience as the leading group battled for position. Once he began making his moves, however, the Mexican driver quickly became a factor at the front.
He fought his way past the likes of Tuukka Taponen, Freddie Slater and Hiyu Yamakoshi before taking the lead with just a handful of laps remaining. From there, Rivera managed the gap perfectly to claim his second F3 victory of the season, but crucially, his first in a Feature Race.
The result also moved Rivera into the top five of the Drivers’ Championship, giving him the perfect response after the disappointment of Silverstone.
Freddie Slater – TRIDENT
Freddie Slater may still be waiting for his maiden FIA Formula 3 victory, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to argue against the TRIDENT driver as one of the standout performers of the 2026 season.
Slater secured his second consecutive pole position at Spa-Francorchamps, producing the fastest lap early in a rain-affected Qualifying session before the deteriorating conditions and a Red Flag prevented anyone from challenging his benchmark.
While Saturday’s Sprint Race ended in disappointment after a collision with championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu, Slater responded strongly in the Feature Race.
A poor start dropped him from pole position, but he fought his way back into the lead before eventually finishing third. It was not the victory he had been chasing, but it was enough to reduce Ugochukwu’s championship advantage to just one point.
Slater now has five podiums from the opening six rounds of the season and has qualified inside the top 12 at every round. The biggest frustration is that he has still not converted that consistency and pace into a win.
However, Spa once again showed that Slater is consistently putting himself in the right position. The first victory may still be eluding him, but the TRIDENT driver continues to apply pressure at the top of the championship.
Jin Nakamura – Hitech
Jin Nakamura was perhaps the easiest name to include among the winners from Spa-Francorchamps.
After a difficult Silverstone weekend, where he failed to qualify inside the top 12 and finished outside the points, the Hitech driver bounced back in spectacular fashion to claim his maiden FIA Formula 3 victory.
Nakamura started the Sprint Race from fourth after a penalty reshuffled the grid, but he made the most of his opportunity from the very beginning. A strong start and a tow down the Kemmel Straight allowed him to move into the lead, before he successfully managed the pressure through the race’s Safety Car restarts.
Despite losing some grip in the closing stages, Nakamura held his nerve to take his first F3 victory and Hitech’s first win of the 2026 season.
The result was also particularly significant for Japanese motorsport, with Nakamura becoming the first Japanese driver to win an FIA Formula 3 race since Ayumu Iwasa in 2021. While Hiyu Yamakoshi had previously crossed the line first in the Monaco Sprint Race before being disqualified, Nakamura’s Spa victory officially marked a major breakthrough for the Hitech driver.
Mattia Colnaghi – MP Motorsport
Mattia Colnaghi’s Spa-Francorchamps weekend marked a major breakthrough in his rookie FIA Formula 3 season.
The MP Motorsport driver arrived in Belgium having scored just one point across the opening five rounds, but left with back-to-back fourth-place finishes in the Sprint and Feature Races. The results were the best of his F3 career and earned him 24 points from a single weekend.
While he narrowly missed out on a maiden podium, Colnaghi showed strong pace across both races and finally delivered the kind of results expected from the reigning Eurocup-3 champion.
After a difficult start to the season, Spa could prove to be the turning point Colnaghi needed.
Losers of the 2026 F3 Spa-Francorchamps Round
Ugo Ugochukwu Théophile Naël – Campos Racing
It was a weekend to forget for Campos Racing’s championship contenders.
Ugo Ugochukwu arrived at Spa-Francorchamps as the championship leader but left Belgium with his advantage over Freddie Slater reduced to just one point.
The American’s weekend unravelled in the opening lap of the Feature Race after contact with teammate Théophile Naël sent him into the gravel and dropped him down the order. Ugochukwu was ultimately unable to score points, while Naël was also forced into the pits after sustaining front-wing damage.
Naël had at least managed to score points in Saturday’s Sprint Race, finishing sixth after starting from the back of the top 10 due to a grid penalty. However, the Frenchman also lost valuable ground in the title fight, with his sole points finish of the weekend leaving him further behind the championship leaders.
With both drivers involved in the early Feature Race incident, Campos Racing saw its two leading championship contenders lose out on a major opportunity at a crucial stage of the season.
Bruno del Pino and Enzo Deligny – Van Amersfoort Racing
Spa-Francorchamps proved to be a difficult weekend for Van Amersfoort Racing, with both Bruno del Pino and Enzo Deligny failing to make the impact they would have wanted.
Del Pino had shown strong consistency earlier in the season, but his recent run of form continued to fade at Spa. The VAR driver struggled to return to the points fight and was unable to rediscover the momentum that had made him one of the early-season standouts.
Deligny also endured a challenging weekend, with the VAR trio struggling to make a significant impact across the two races.
With the team clearly capable of fighting further up the order, Spa was a frustrating weekend for both drivers as they failed to convert their potential into the results they needed.
Dams Lucas Oil
DAMS Lucas Oil also endured a difficult Spa-Francorchamps weekend, with Nicola Lacorte, Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi and Gerrard Xie all failing to score points across the round.
The team’s weekend was made even more difficult by the post-Qualifying penalties. Bhirombhakdi was handed a three-place grid drop for driving unnecessarily slowly on the racing line, while Xie received two separate three-place penalties after being found to have driven unnecessarily slowly, left the track without justifiable cause and gained a position in the queue.
Bhirombhakdi then endured further drama in the Sprint Race, going through the gravel and into a board to bring out the second Safety Car of the race.
Lacorte and Xie were unable to break into the points across the weekend, leaving DAMS Lucas Oil with nothing to show for a difficult round at Spa-Francorchamps.
AIX Racing
It was a weekend to forget for AIX Racing, with none of Ricardo Escotto, Yevan David or Fernando Barrichello able to score points at Spa-Francorchamps.
David’s Feature Race ended almost immediately, with the AIX Racing driver finishing in the gravel at the end of the opening lap. Barrichello also failed to make it to the chequered flag, leaving Escotto as the team’s only finisher.
However, Escotto’s Feature Race result was later undone by a penalty, which dropped him to the bottom of the classification and left AIX Racing with nothing to show for the round.
With all three drivers failing to score and two unable to finish the Feature Race, the 2026 F3 Spa-Francorchamps Round at the Belgian GP was a weekend the team will be eager to put behind them as the championship heads straight to Budapest.
