Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov claimed his fourth victory of the 2026 F2 season in the Austrian GP Feature Race, delivering a home victory for the Red Bull Junior Team at the Red Bull Ring. The Bulgarian’s third Feature Race win of the season sees him close the points gap in the Drivers’ Standings to current championship leader Gabriele Minì, leaving him just two points behind the Italian.
As the season reaches its halfway point this weekend at Silverstone, the championship battle is beginning to take shape ahead of the summer break. Reflecting on his race in the post-Feature press conference, Tsolov spoke to Pit Debrief and other media outlets, explaining what was going through his mind during the opening stages of the race.
“Yeah, it was quite exciting because I had a good start in the launch. I think my reaction time was quite good, so I managed to get Alex [Dunne] on the line, and then I felt like I was under pressure going into T3 so I defended.”, the Red Bull Junior said.
“My intention was not to overtake Noel [León] at that point, but I guess he got afraid that I would hit him because I did brake late, but I think I was under control, and then he left some gaps, so I just went for it and I came out first out of T3.”
“So in that sense it was I think, a great choice, a good thing to do. Then I believe I messed up a little bit in the pit stop because I didn’t hold the brakes so the mechanics couldn’t put the rear tyres on very well, so I lost maybe two seconds there and then made my race a bit more difficult.”
Returning to the top step of the podium at the Red Bull Ring
“It means a lot. It kind of is a flashback from last year.”, he said, recalling his Formula 3 victory at the Red Bull Ring last year before he was disqualified for a technical infringement.
“Hopefully a better end result because I got disqualifed last year, but yeah, it’s just great. I always have good memories from this track. The past three years, again, like Monaco, I’ve been able to fight in the front, and I mean that’s very important and it’s good. It’s a special weekend, obviously.”
However, when asked how he felt about closing the gap to Minì, he explained that while he takes each race as it comes, he also emphasised the importance of keeping the bigger picture in mind.
“I do take it race by race but obviously I do look at the championship as well because it can help you judge your movements better and not take so much risk.”, Tsolov admitted.
“I look at both, but I’m not really focused on that. Obviously it’s still very early in the season, so it is good to close the gap after the last three rounds. We’ve been going similar on points with Gabriele [Minì] and we’ve been really competitive if you check previous years as well. So it is good to pull away from the rest of the pack as well.”
Tsolov weighs in on losing his front-wing endplate
Having spent most of the race without one of his front-wing endplates, Tsolov explained that although he theoretically lost some front downforce, the damage unexpectedly improved the rear balance of the car, an area he had been struggling with in the closing stages.
“Well, not that much. I lost the end plate yesterday as well on the crash that happened, so it wasn’t crucial. Let’s say I think you do lose a little bit of front downforce, but it probably balanced the car well because I was trailing with the rear quite a lot in the end of the race, so maybe I did the perfect strategy in that sense.”
Rather than worrying about the missing endplate, the Red Bull Junior admitted he was initially more concerned that he had lost the entire front wing. Once he realised the damage was limited to the endplate, however, he felt at ease, noting that plenty of drivers have gone on to win races despite carrying the same damage.
“But yeah, I was more worried that the whole front wing came off, like the full side because the hit was quite big and I just saw a big part flying, and I thought it was the full wing. So it wasn’t that bad after all, there’s been a lot of winners without the end plate, so I wasn’t too worried when I found out it was only that.”
Overheating tyres in the Austrian heat
Reflecting on the challenges, Tsolov explained that overheating, rather than outright degradation, proved to be the biggest issue during the weekend. However, with track temperatures around 10 degrees cooler on Sunday than in the Sprint Race, he found tyre management more manageable.
“To be fair, yes. I mean, yesterday I felt like the tyre deg was a lot of work. Not even the deg, but just the overheating we had and we experienced throughout the corner itself. If you enter one corner fast, then you lose grip mid to exit, so it was very weird, and I had to adapt a lot.”, Tsolov explained.
“Obviously today made it easier anticipating what we felt yesterday, but I think definitely with 10 degrees less of track temp, it made our life easier, so it was easier in a way, but also I had to manage with the DRS because, again, it was really powerful.”
Tackling the challenges of tyre management in his fight with Dunne
Discussing tyre management, Tsolov explained that running behind Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne with DRS actually worked in his favour. By relying on the straight-line speed advantage, he was able to push less through the corners, preserve his tyres, and still match Dunne’s lap times.
“To be fair on my side, I felt easier to manage the tyres when I was behind Alex using DRS. I was able to push much less throughout the corners and then gain so much lap time on the straights. So I found it beneficial on my side to just wait there and do really competitive lap times because Alex was pushing a lot to keep the pace up and I was just cruising around behind him to do the same lap time.”
Believing that tyre preservation would prove decisive, the Red Bull Junior chose not to battle aggressively for the lead in the early stages. Ultimately, he believed that the strategy paid off, as he had more tyre life in reserve when Dunne’s pace began to drop in the closing stages.
He added: “So I think that’s where, on my side, I managed to do the race well because then, for the end, I had a lot more tyres saved, and we saw that Alex had a big drop. So that’s why I didn’t want to fight too much with him again for the race lead because it didn’t really make much sense at that moment.”
Tsolov: “Glad to be competing” with Minì for the title
Heading into the seventh round of the season, Tsolov and Minì have consistently found themselves among the top three, a consistency reflected in the significant points haul both have amassed so far.
Reflecting on weekends such as Montreal, where he admitted Minì had done a better job of maximising his result, Tsolov said he has taken lessons from the Italian’s approach.
“Like Gabriele said I think we’ve been super consistent, but at the same time there has been differences in approach at some races. I think Canada is a really good example where we had a lot more pace than Gabi [Minì], but we didn’t score any points, whereas Gabi maximised the weekend much better and stayed out of trouble.”
“So I’ve quite learned a lot from him in that sense–to take less risk and, you know really calculate every move you do. For sure it’s been paying off since I took that approach, and we’re still winning races, so it’s not like we’re fully backing off.”
Nonetheless, despite being direct championship rivals, the 19-year-old expressed his appreciation for competing against someone who understands what it takes to win a title and highlighted the high level of competition in Formula 2.
“So I’m glad to be competing with him because we both understand what it takes very well and it’s quite nice to see the competition level very high.”
