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WEEKEND ANALYSIS: The similarities and differences between Tsolov and Minì’s Miami victories

7 May 2026

Formula 2’s first ever visit to Miami was one to remember with two thoroughly entertaining races that went down to the wire.

Nikola Tsolov beat Laurens van Hoepen and Alexander Dunne in a run to the chequered flag in the Sprint, while Gabriele Minì secured victory in the Feature Race following a late battle with Dino Beganovic and Rafael Câmara.

Two different types of races, but there were also some similarities in how the winners approached them. Let’s recap the weekend to find out how…

WEATHER CONDITIONS AND TYRE MANAGEMENT

The first notable difference between the two races were the weather conditions.

In the Sprint, it was incredibly hot, while in the Feature Race, it rained heavily in the morning, and while it eased up, the track was still wet for much of the event.

Tsolov started from reverse grid pole in the Sprint while Minì won from fourth

This meant that the drivers had to manage their tyres but in a different way. In the Sprint, they had to save their Mediums to make sure they lasted 23 laps in the sweltering heat – although Alexander Dunne noted that degradation had not been as high as he had expected.

In the Feature, with the track drying, and with a mandatory pitstop to consider, overheating was the main source of concern, something Minì said was a key focus for him in the press conference afterwards.

This meant that the drivers did not get the same race twice, so a lot of their learnings from the Sprint were not needed in the Feature, especially as they did not use the Supersofts tyre.

STARTING POSITIONS AND APPROACHES

The second factor that was different is both drivers’ starting positions. Tsolov went from reverse grid pole, while Minì went from fourth, so their paths to winning were not the same.

The Campos driver said afterwards: “I was trying to create a gap and maybe take (Van Hoepen) out of my DRS, but it was just really difficult.”

So while Tsolov was ahead for most of the race, the advantage largely went to the drivers behind him, who had three DRS zones they could use to overtake him. At the same time, he was also trying his best to manage his tyres, so as not to drop off at the end.

Minì lost out to Beganovic early in the Feature Race

For Minì it was different, he was fifth in the early stages after losing out to Beganovic, and he had no DRS to work with. But what was similar between he and Tsolov is that they largely maintained their positions in the first half of the race.

The MP Motorsport driver said: “It was a race in two parts. So the first part, I tried to stay on track, not to do any mistakes and see how the pace was. And then the second part, we just tried to gain position and be as quick as possible.”

THE SECOND HALF - TSOLOV

Minì’s analysis of it being a race of two halves was spot on, but it was not just true in the Feature, it was also accurate of the Sprint.

Van Hoepen did not try to overtake Tsolov until Lap 13 of 23, when he used the DRS to get ahead of him going down the back straight.

The Bulgarian took the lead back on Lap 17, and with the battles going on for third place, it meant he and the TRIDENT driver could pull away and were now in a contest by themselves for the win – until Dunne closed in on the last lap.

Tsolov was forced to keep van Hoepen behind in the closing stages of the race

Van Hoepen then bided his time before getting the hurry up from his engineer and he made a move on the penultimate lap, but Tsolov held him off.

The Dutchman then made a move into Turn 11 on the final lap, but the Campos driver got back ahead on the brakes into Turn 17, with Dunne just behind them.

THE SECOND HALF - MINÌ

Similarly for Minì, his race was also won in the closing stages. But unlike Tsolov, he had to come through the field to do so.

The key moments for the Italian came with his overtakes on Kush Maini and then a bold dive to the inside of Noel León at Turn 16, all in the final 20 minutes of the race on new Wet tyres.

This put him in P3 and in prime position to take advantage of what would happen between Beganovic and Rafael Câmara, with the two Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy members going off track as they battled for the win.

The Italian's late surge saw him take victory in the Feature Race

What was clear is that Minì had better tyres at the end than Beganovic and Câmara, he more grip through the corners and was not sliding that much compared to the front two.

This is because in the first few racing laps after the pitstops, Minì managed his tyres well. He was consistently slower than both Beganovic and Câmara, and at times he was over two seconds off the Invicta Racing driver.

So while they raced each other, the MP driver kept things under control, and that gave him better performance at the end. In fact, on the last lap when he was ahead of Beganovic, he 0.5s quicker than him, and one second faster than Câmara.

It was two different types of races in Miami, but they had one thing in common, and that is the fact that they were full of entertainment featured worthy winners.