Boya aiming to bounce back at home weekend around Barcelona

While it has not been the 2026 season Mari Boya had hoped for pre-season, the Spaniard is hopeful ahead of Round 5 that he and PREMA Racing can get back on track.

Boya has race-winning experience around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, and believes this weekend could be the one that showcases his and the team’s potential to a fuller extent.

“I'm 100% convinced that it's the best week of the year,” Boya said of racing at home. “I'm doing the thing that I love the most, which is racing. I'm together with my friends and family, so it's the perfect plan to have. It's a track that I really like, I have a good experience and memories, so I'm super excited for this week.”

Despite a tricky start to the year, Boya has been able to put on comeback performances on Sunday that have brought points in the Miami and Montreal Feature Races.

P7 and P8 after starting well outside the top 10 are evidence that the race pace and wheel-to-wheel craft hasn’t been lost, and that it’s a stronger Qualifying result that’s needed.

He detailed what he’s expecting come Friday afternoon and says a clean start in Free Practice will go a long way in aiding those efforts.

“Everyone knows the track pretty well, so putting a clean lap together in here is crucial. We know how aggressive the surface of the track is, and being super smooth, especially in Sector 1 in order to have tyres for the rest of the lap and Sector 3, could make a big difference.

“I will try to put all this together to make the difference. It's more about having a clean track, and we know that qualifying is all about the last push. We go only for one push, so we have more than time enough to make our laps, so it's more about putting it together in this last final push.

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“One thing that will change is having better pace arriving to the track, especially starting Free Practice, arriving into qualifying, changing a lot of things on the car, the time is pretty limited.”

Outside of an improvement in Qualifying, Boya is confident that he and PREMA can once again show their speed in the races, where he continues to shine.

A top 10 start in both races in the clear aim for this weekend, but he maintains confidence that wherever they end up starting, the platform is there to move forward up the order.

“It's pretty difficult to find yourself a good rhythm as a driver, and also the confidence with the car. I think in Barcelona, with all the test points, it could be a bit easier.

“There are positive things to take, and we have to go on that. F2 is pretty hard, especially in terms of strategy, and I'm pretty new at this, but at the moment it's the thing that we are extracting the most.

“We are lacking just the speed and performance that we always had, but sadly at the moment it's what we are missing and we have time to fix it.

“I would say in Monaco, we found some good conclusions in the Feature Race, so this also gives me motivation coming through my home race.”