Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov enjoyed a record-breaking weekend at Silverstone, sweeping both the Sprint and Feature Races to make F2 history. The Red Bull Junior became just the fourth driver to complete the feat and moved one step closer to breaking the record for most wins in a single F2 season, which currently stands at seven.
Fresh from his sixth victory of the season, Tsolov reflected on his race in the post-Feature press conference attended by Pit Debrief, admitting he was left speechless by what he and the team had achieved over the weekend.
“I’m over the moon. I have no words to describe what I’m feeling right now and what happened in this past two days.”, he said. “We came into the weekend thinking it would be a weak one for us and we came away with two wins. So it is quite a turnaround from what we expected. So, yeah, I’m just looking forward to keep the momentum going into the next couple of rounds. And now we’ve got a nice gap as well in the championship.”
Having displayed immense confidence in the car throughout both races, he explained the decisive pass that ultimately earned him victory over ART Grand Prix’s Kush Maini.
“I’ve been confident in the high speed during the whole weekend. So going into there, I wasn’t sure if the move was going to stick, but I did my best to hold it. And I got a little snap on the outside. But yeah, then thankfully I managed to stop it enough to get a good exit of Maggots and Becketts as well. So he wouldn’t get the chance to pass me back. It was a nice battle and fair as well.”
“So thanks to Kush for being nice as well.”, Tsolov joked.
Tsolov discusses the championship battle and chasing F2 history
With a clean sweep at Silverstone, the Bulgarian overtook the ever-consistent Gabriele Minì in the Drivers’ Standings and extended his advantage to 17 points over the Italian.
Despite sitting firmly at the top of the standings, when asked whether he considers the championship picture each weekend, Tsolov explained: “Not necessarily, but obviously looking at it after the race. Now it’s looking good and it’s been looking good the whole year.”, he admitted.
“So we’re more thinking round by round and what approach we need to take depending on the position we’re in. But we’re not necessarily, ok, we have to do this because we’re in this in the championship, etc.”
Closing in on the record for the most wins in a single F2 season, held by Charles Leclerc and George Russell, the Red Bull Junior admitted it was a “crazy” milestone to consider and ranked his Silverstone weekend among the top three weekends of his career.
“It’s definitely not on my mind. It’s a crazy number to think about. But I would put it definitely one of my top three best weekends in my career. I mean, a double win in this championship is something almost impossible to do.”
He added: “And we’ve managed to do it on a weekend that we thought we would be weaker than usual. So, like I said, I’m a bit over the moon. We only invest to improve in quality. And that will be a complete season, I would say.”
Credits Campos’ setup direction and improvements
Tsolov credited the Spanish outfit’s efforts for the turnaround they experienced but also highlighted the value of Red Bull and their support in his preparation. He also praised Campos’ setup direction they chose to take, which he believes helped maximise grip while also protecting the tyres in both races.
“I would say it was more of a teamwork with Campos rather than Red Bull.”, he said. “Of course, Red Bull helped a lot. And, you know, the sim prep there, it’s always very valuable to see how to save the tyres and what particularly to do.”
“There’s very interesting ways that you can still keep up the pace and push quite a lot while still saving them. So, it is quite interesting to practice that.”
“And then on the other hand, I think with the team, we went into a direction that was obviously good with the car set up to protect the tyres and in general just have more grip.”
Remains focused on maximising opportunities as title fight continues
“Everything is very spontaneous. I decide what to do in the moment. Usually, my idea is just to fill the gap that’s missing. And whether it’s inside or outside, I always fill it. And then, if an opportunity opens because of doing that, then I obviously take it.”, Tsolov said when asked about how he set up his lunge on Maini.
“I wasn’t really sure if the Maggots-Becketts move was going to stick, but I managed to do it and carry a lot of speed. It did work, but I had a few tries in Stowe laps before, and it was quite tough because there was a lot of pick-up.”
With Minì starting and finishing further down the order at Silverstone, Tsolov stressed that his championship approach remains focused on maximising his own opportunities. Acknowledging the unpredictable nature of motorsport and Formula 2, he said it is important to take advantage of weekends when everything comes together.
“It is good. Obviously, we’re looking at mostly ourselves, and then we cannot really control what Gabi [Minì] does. But again, he’s in the points once again, so he’s not completely out of it. I mean, there’s weekends that we’re going to be faster, there’s weekends that they’re going to be faster, so we just make the most out of it on weekends like this in Silverstone.”
Leaving the seventh round of the 2026 F2 season at Silverstone, Tsolov becomes the first-ever driver in the championship’s history to achieve three back-to-back wins. Running high on confidence, the Red Bull Junior will look to continue on his impressive run of form in Spa.
