Invicta Racing claimed their second consecutive Formula 2 teams’ championship in Abu Dhabi. Soon-to-be F1 graduate Arvid Lindblad and Joshua Dürksen secured the wins, while none of the drivers in the top five in the championship took a single top-five finish across the weekend. Feeder Series reviews all the action from the final round of 2025.

By Finjo Muschlien

Arvid Lindblad was announced as a driver for Racing Bulls F1 driver on Tuesday and made an appearance in free practice one with Red Bull Racing on Friday. He wasn’t the only F2 driver to take part in that session, as Luke Browning made another appearance for Williams, while Aston Martin became the first team since the introduction of the mandatory rookie FP1 sessions to field two F2 drivers in the same session with Jak Crawford and Cian Shields behind the wheel of their cars.

Crawford also topped F2’s practice session on Friday before Invicta’s Roman Staněk took pole position. Lindblad qualified 10th and converted his reverse-grid pole into the win in his final F2 sprint race. On Sunday, Staněk lost out to Dürksen, who took his only feature race win of the season but his second feature race win at Abu Dhabi.

• Pre-weekend roundtable: What’s next for F2’s title hopefuls after defeat to Fornaroli?
• Qualifying report and quotes: Staněk takes Abu Dhabi pole to put Invicta in prime position for teams’ title
• Sprint race report and quotes: Lindblad wins Abu Dhabi sprint in final F2 weekend before F1 graduation
• Feature race report and quotes: Dürksen wins Abu Dhabi feature as Invicta seal back-to-back double F2 titles

1. Invicta are the ones to beat – again

Invicta Racing have clinched their second consecutive title in the teams’ championship in Formula 2 in 2025 thanks to three sprint race wins,two feature race wins and a further nine podium finishes. Four of those wins were courtesy of drivers’ champion Leonardo Fornaroli, but the Spa feature race win went on Staněk’s account.

At the feature race at the Hungaroring, the team secured the first 1-2 finish in a feature race since Prema achieved the same result with Oscar Piastri and Robert Shwartzman at Jeddah in December 2021. 

Invicta entered the Abu Dhabi round this year with a gap of 35 points over Hitech and 57 over Campos entering the round. Staněk’s pole position on Friday widened the gap to 37 and 59 points with just 63 up for grabs in the races. 

Both Invicta drivers were scoreless for only the second time this year in the first race, with Staněk starting and finishing 10th and Fornaroli receiving a 10-second time penalty post-race that dropped him from 11th to 17th. Staněk’s second-place finish in the feature race, however, was enough to secure them the title even with Fornaroli’s alternate strategy putting him on the back foot following the second safety car period. 

Invicta were not always the team to beat. In 2023, the last year before the regulation changes, the team came just fifth in the championship. That was a step in the right direction following an even more difficult year in 2022, when the team came just seventh in the standings. In the past two years, the team have converted the flashes of pace they showed with Jack Doohan behind the wheel into a pattern of remarkable consistency. Now firmly, if unexpectedly, the dominant force after the regulation changes, the team stand a strong chance of defending their titles in 2026 with a line-up with proven success. 

2. Dürksen can be a title contender in 2026

Joshua Dürksen secured ninth position in the drivers’ championship this year thanks to his six podium finishes in the final eight races. The AIX Racing driver brought home second place in the sprint race, having put the leader Arvid Lindblad under pressure in the opening five and closing two laps of the race. 

In the feature race, he repeated his triumph from last year in what he described in the press conference as a ‘copy-paste’ win. Starting eighth – as he did in last year’s feature race – Dürksen moved up to fourth position on the opening lap and third entering the second lap as Jak Crawford ahead served his 10-second time penalty. 

Following the pit stops, Dürksen was the net leader, having passed Beganovic and Staněk during the pit cycle. With just the drivers on the alternate strategy ahead of him, Dürksen passed some on track and gained some spots when others pitted. After 33 laps, he won by 5.505 seconds ahead of Staněk and 6.057s ahead of Prema Racing’s Gabriele Minì. 

In 2026, Dürksen will race for back-to-back teams’ champions Invicta Racing, who can give him a car in which he can win races and challenge for the drivers’ title. Rafael Câmara’s presence will certainly help with the quest to give the team a third consecutive teams’ title, though being the top driver as he was at AIX will not be easy with the reigning F3 champion and Ferrari junior alongside him.

3. Tsolov is one to watch next year

F3 runner-up Nikola Tsolov had just two previous tests in F2 2018 machinery at Monza and Spielberg prior to his F2 debut last month in Qatar. He may have just been preparing for his full F2 campaign with Campos Racing next year, but his performances have exceeded expectations already, with his first podium in the sprint race at Abu Dhabi the highlight of his two-round F2 taster. 

Tsolov qualified ninth in Abu Dhabi, again outqualifying his F1-bound teammate Lindblad as he did in Qatar. The Bulgarian driver received a three-place grid penalty for both races for impeding Luke Browning in qualifying, demoting him to fifth on the grid for the sprint race.

His start in the sprint race quickly moved him up to third again. He passed fellow Red Bull junior Oliver Goethe and Prema’s Sebastián Montoya, who stalled on the grid, and settled into third after the opening lap as the leading pair of Lindblad and Dürksen pulled away. 

In the feature race, Tsolov started and finished in 12th position while on the alternate strategy. He started on the medium tyres expecting to run longer, but the second safety car in that race allowed the drivers on the main strategy who had already pitted to catch up without losing time. 

Tsolov may be Red Bull’s only junior in F2 next year, and rumours are already emerging that Tsolov could become Racing Bulls’ reserve driver for 2026. With the high support he will receive, however, comes the high pressure of adequately filling Lindblad’s shoes.  Next year, he must perform and present himself as an option for an F1 drive in 2027 or 2028 – it’s his only way of staying in the notoriously cutthroat Red Bull Junior Team.

4. Misfortune stalls the fight for second

Four drivers were in the fight for second in the drivers’ championship going into the final round at Abu Dhabi. After qualifying on Friday, in which incumbent position-holder Crawford finished second, two drivers’ realistic chances of taking the position faded away. Alex Dunne, who trailed Crawford by 21 points, qualified just outside the top 10 in 11th, while Luke Browning, eight points behind Crawford, qualified 17th. Verschoor, even on points with the American, qualified 12th.

Starting ninth in the sprint race, Crawford fought his way up to sixth position and scored three important points. Dunne scored a point by finishing eighth, while Verschoor finished only 11th, not reaching the points for the first time since the feature race at Belgium. As was the case in Qatar the previous week, Browning struggled for much of the race. His late pit stop for supersoft tyres helped him take the fastest lap of the race, although he didn’t receive the point for it as he finished outside the top eight. 

On Sunday, it was initially Crawford’s turn to be struck by misfortune. Just before the feature race started, he received a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for a grid infringement. He kept second off the line but pitted at the end of the first lap to serve the penalty. 

Luckily for Crawford, each of his rivals faced their own difficulties. On lap two, Dunne collided with Victor Martins at Turn 7 before being collected by AIX’s Cian Shields, ending all three of their races. That brought out the safety car, after whose withdrawal the drivers on the main strategy pitted. Hitech decided to pit both Beganovic and Browning on lap seven, and the double-stack all but annulled the seven-position gain the Briton had made prior to that pit stop. 

On lap nine, after all drivers on the main strategy made their pit stops, Montoya’s car stopped after Turn 14, triggering a virtual safety car that became a full safety car two laps later. Those who had pitted caught up to those who hadn’t, including Crawford and Verschoor on the alternate strategy.

After the pit stops, the pair came out just outside the points. Crawford managed to fight his way up to 10th place and set the fastest lap, though with none of his rivals scoring, he was assured of second place. 

No matter the championship situation, all drivers have plans for next year in the works. Aston Martin junior Crawford will be the team’s reserve driver in 2026. Verschoor announced his new McLaren partnership last week, while Browning is set to move on from F2 and take up a seat in Super Formula with Kondo Racing in place of Zak O’Sullivan. Dunne is the only driver of the quartet who will return to F2 next year, with his spot at Rodin confirmed Monday morning.

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Roman Staněk, 1:36.836	Jak Crawford, +0.087s	Leonardo Fornaroli, +0.134s
Sprint race (23 laps)	Arvid Lindblad, 39:15.648	Joshua Dürksen, +0.982s	Nikola Tsolov, +9.605s
Feature race (33 laps)	Joshua Dürksen, 1:01:24.429	Roman Staněk, +5.505s	Gabriele Minì, +6.057s

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Leonardo Fornaroli, 211	Invicta Racing, 316
P2	Jak Crawford, 175	Hitech, 278
P3	Richard Verschoor, 170	Campos Racing, 258
P4	Luke Browning, 162	DAMS, 207
P5	Alex Dunne, 150	MP Motorsport, 207
P6	Arvid Lindblad, 134	Prema Racing, 163
P7	Dino Beganovic, 116	Rodin Motorsport, 155
P8	Pepe Martí, 112	ART Grand Prix, 127
P9	Joshua Dürksen, 107	AIX Racing, 107
P10	Roman Staněk, 105	Van Amersfoort Racing, 44

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency