This week is a more subdued one in junior single-seaters, with the Formula Winter Series holding its second round at Portimão and the six-race, five-day YACademy Winter Series venturing to Sebring. Feeder Series previews what’s to come.

By Feeder Series

While FWS’ second round is the headline junior series event this weekend, it is secondary to the recovery efforts in Portugal as the country reels from back-to-back named windstorms. Last week, Storm Kristin broke national records and caused catastrophic damage in central Portugal. This Tuesday, Storm Leonardo hit the Algarve region, bringing heavy winds and rain to the region where the Portimão track is located. At the time of publication, at least seven direct and indirect fatalities have been reported in Portugal from the two storms combined.

Over in America, Florida’s record-breaking cold has gone away, and the track action is heating up too with the YACademy Winter Series taking place this week. The two-round championship, taking place on Wednesday and Thursday at Sebring and on Saturday and Sunday at Homestead, acts as a winter series for USF Juniors, with eight of the 22 YACademy drivers already confirmed for the full USF Juniors season.

Names to watch include returning drivers Oliver Wheldon, Brenden Cooley and Colin Aitken, fifth, 10th and 21st respectively in USF Juniors last year; Victor Couto, who was third in the 2025 Formula FARAseason; and Chip Ganassi junior Cam Becker, who turned 12 last month. Streaming is not available, but live timing is available on RaceMonitor.

1. Formula Winter Series: Round 2, Portimão

Formula Winter Series: Round 2, Portimão

Circuit: Algarve International Circuit, 4.653 km

Schedule: All times local (UTC+0)

Thursday 5 February 

• 10:00–10:55: Collective test 1 
• 12:00–12:55: Collective test 2
• 14:00–14:55: Collective test 3

Friday 6 February

• 9:00–9:55: Collective test 4
• 11:00–11:55: Collective test 5
• 13:35–14:30: Collective test 6 

Saturday 7 February

• 9:15–9:30: Qualifying 1
• 9:40–9:55: Qualifying 2
• 13:10–13:40: Race 1 
• 16:30–17:00: Race 2

Sunday 8 February

• 9:15–9:45: Race 3

How to follow: Races will be live streamed on the Winter Series Youtube channel, while live timing is available at RaceResults.

Weather forecast: Rain expected Thursday through Saturday. Cloudy on Sunday. 

What to know: The Formula Winter Series grid makes its way over to Portimão for the second round of the championship and the last round in Portugal. It will support the 6 Hours of Portimão, which takes place after the last FWS race on Sunday.

As it stands, McLaren development driver Dries Van Langendonck leads the championship standings on 48 points, whilst Oleksandr Savinkov and Rocco Coronel follow behind on 31 and 26 respectively after a rainy weekend at Estoril. Each of the top three claimed a win through the spray at Estoril, though fourth-placed Ary Bansal and fifth-placed Levi Arn will be close on their tails, with Bansal on 22 points and Arn on 21. In the teams’ standings, Rodin Motorsport and US Racing are separated by just two points.

As for driver changes, Georgiy Zasov, Rafaela Ferreira, Alisha Palmowski and Oscar Repetto will not be partaking this weekend, while there will be six additions to the grid.

Campos Racing will be introducing Swedish driver León Hedfors (#92) and Romanian-American Zoe Florescu (#93) to the grid. Both 17-year-olds have previous experience in single-seaters: Hedfors placed 22nd in the 2025 Formula Trophy championship, while Florescu placed eighth in the F1 Academy rookie test in September. Brazilian 15-year-old Alexandre Louza (#12), the 2025 Fórmula Delta runner-up, will join Cram Motorsport in place of Repetto this weekend as well as in round four in Aragón. 

Rodin Motorsport F1 Academy driver Ella Stevens (#5) will warm up for her main campaign with an FWS entry this weekend. The McLaren development driver was the runner-up in last year’s British Kart Championship in the KZ2 class. The 19-year-old Briton will make her official single-seater debut this weekend. 

Fifteen-year-old Mexican Nicolás Cortés (#24) fills Zasov’s empty seat at Jenzer, having finished fourth in the F4 CEZ championship in 2025. Rounding out the grid for round two is 16-year-old Emmilio Valentino Del Grosso (#19), who will debut in single-seaters with Mathilda Racing. The Belgian-licenced Italian-Venezuelan finished 18th in the 2025 Ginetta Junior Championship and has since tested extensively with Elite Motorsport in GB4 machinery.

Report by Grayson Wallace

Read the previous round’s report here.

All times and forecasts listed above are subject to change. For the most up-to-date information, follow each series’ websites or social media pages.

Header photo credit: Gedlich Racing