F1 Academy’s season opener in Shanghai is the headline junior single-seater event this weekend, with racing in Spain and the United States also on the agenda. Feeder Series previews the action.

By Feeder Series

For the first time this year, two of the top professional open-wheel series race on the same weekend, with several support series in tow. Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix weekend will feature the debut round of F1 Academy, while IndyCar’s second round in Arlington counts Indy NXT and USF Pro 2000 among the series on its support bill.

The Arlington street circuit is particularly notable for its status as a new venue. The 2.73-kilometre track runs around the stadiums of the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys and Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers. In this regard, it bears similarities to the Miami International Autodrome, which encircles the stadium of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins. Arlington also boasts the longest straight on the Indy NXT calendar between Turns 9 and 10, measuring at nearly 1.5 kilometres – almost as long as the Milwaukee Mile that Indy NXT and USF Pro 2000 will visit in August.

There are also three series holding their season finales in Spain. The Spanish Winter Championship editions of Eurocup-3 and Eurocup-4 come to a close at MotorLand Aragón, while a few hours’ drive to the northeast, the Formula Winter Series concludes its five-round season at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Read on to find out how to watch all these series.

Note that because there is no junior single-seater racing next weekend, there will not be a preview or review published. F1 Academy’s review this weekend will be published separately on Tuesday, though in the meantime, you can follow all the sessions live on the Feeder Series Live X account.

1. F1 Academy: Round 1, Shanghai
2. Indy NXT: Round 2, Arlington
3. USF Pro 2000: Round 1, Arlington
4. Eurocup-3 Spanish Winter Championship: Round 3, Aragón
5. Eurocup-4 Spanish Winter Championship: Round 3, Aragón
6. Formula Winter Series: Round 5, Barcelona

F1 Academy: Round 1, Shanghai

Circuit: Shanghai International Circuit, 5.451 km

Schedule: All times local (UTC+8)

Friday 13th March

• 9:10–9:50: Free practice
• 14:10–14:40: Qualifying

Saturday 14th March

• 13:45–14:20: Race 1 (13 laps)

Sunday 15th March

• 10:40–11:15: Race 2 (13 laps) 

How to follow: Sessions will be streamed live on F1 TV and on the series’ X and YouTube accounts. Live timing will be available via the F1 Academy website.  

Weather forecast: Sunny on Friday and Saturday, with a low chance of light rain on Sunday. 

What to know: F1 Academy returns for its fourth season this weekend in Shanghai. 

Last season, Doriane Pin took the championship title with a total of 172 points, 15 points ahead of second-placed Maya Weug. The highest-placed driver that will be returning this year is Ella Lloyd, who finished fourth in the standings with 109 points. Alisha Palmowski, who finished fifth in the standings and took her first win in Shanghai last year, will also return to the grid, which features 11 rookie drivers. Eleven of the 17 full-timers compete with some form of F1 team support. 

Shi Wei will rejoin Hitech as the wild card driver for the Shanghai round. In her wild card entry last year, Shi retired in the first race and finished 14th in the second race last year. She competed in two rounds of Chinese F4 last year, with her best finish being 12th, taken in races two and four at Shanghai last year.

Report by Kaylene Lau

Indy NXT: Round 2, Arlington

Circuit: Streets of Arlington, 4.393 km

Schedule: All times local (UTC−5)

Friday 13 March

• 14:00–14:45: Practice 1

Saturday 14 March 

• 10:15–11:00: Practice 2
• 15:30–16:00: Qualifying

Sunday 15 March 

• 10:05–11:00: Race (27 laps or 55 minutes) 

How to follow: In the United States, practice one, practice two and qualifying will be shown on Fox Sports 2. The race will be on Fox Sports 1. For international viewers, all sessions will be streamed live on IndyCar Live. Live timing will be available on the IndyCar website and the IndyCar App.

Weather forecast: Sunny all weekend long.

What to know: Indy NXT will race in Arlington, Texas, in support of the IndyCar Series for its second round of 2026.

The street course is brand new to all competitors, who will enter this weekend with a lot of unknowns about the track and required setups. The teams and drivers who can adapt and learn the quickest will emerge the strongest.

Cape Motorsports driver Nikita Johnson won the opening race in St Petersburg and therefore leads the championship coming into this weekend. Andretti Global’s Max Taylor sits in second, and HMD Motorsports’ Tymek Kucharczyk sits in third. The rest of the standings mirror the finishing order of the 24 drivers who raced in St Petersburg, all of whom return this weekend.

Report by Vincent van der Hoek

Read the previous round’s report here.

USF Pro 2000: Round 1, Arlington

Circuit: Streets of Arlington, 4.393 km

Schedule: All times local (UTC−5)

Friday 13 March

• 11:30–12:05: Practice one
• 17:15–17:45: Qualifying

Saturday 14 March 

• 12:25–13:05: Race 1
• 16:55–17:35: Race 2

How to follow: All sessions will be streamed live on the USF Pro Championships YouTube channel. Live Timing will be available on the USF Pro 2000 website.

Weather forecast: Sunny all weekend long.

What to know: The opening round of USF Pro 2000, the top level of the USF Pro Championships package, has arrived. Twenty-two drivers are set to take part on a weekend that will offer a completely new experience for the teams and drivers.

Twelve rookies are on the grid for these first two races of the season. Among them are the entire top four of last season’s USF2000 championship, namely champion Jack Jeffers, runner-up Teddy Musella, third-placed Thomas Schrage, and fourth-placed G3 Argyros. There are also some guest appearances from USF2000 drivers Leonardo Escorpioni, Evan Cooley, Anthony Martella and Colin Aitken in what is one of two USF Pro 2000 race weekends not supported by USF2000. 

Others to watch are the returning Mac Clark, who finished third in the standings last season, and Andrés Cárdenas, who finished seventh in Eurocup-3 and fourth in its winter series. To learn more about the 2026 USF Pro 2000 championship, read our season guide here.

Report by Vincent van der Hoek

Eurocup-3 Spanish Winter Championship: Round 3, Aragón

Circuit: MotorLand Aragón, 5.345 km

Schedule: All times local (UTC+1)

Friday 13 March

• 11:00–11:40: Official test 1
• 14:50–15:30: Official test 2

Saturday 14 March

• 09:30–09:50: Qualifying 1
• 13:35–14:10: Race 1
• 16:45–17:10: Sprint race

Sunday 15 March

• 09:30–09:50: Qualifying 2
• 13:45–14:20: Race 2

How to follow: Live timing for all sessions will be available through Al Kamel Systems. All races will be streamed on the Spanish Winter Championship YouTube channel.

Weather forecast: Sunny on Friday with overnight showers heading into Saturday. Partly cloudy with a northwesterly wind for the rest of the weekend. 

What to know: Eurocup-3 will once again hold the finale of its winter series at MotorLand Aragón, this time alongside its F4 counterpart’s own finale. 

Hitech’s Keanu Al Azhari heads into the weekend on 100 points, 33 ahead of Palou Motorsport’s James Egozi. With that gap, the Emirati driver could win his first-ever single-seater championship as early as the first race of the weekend if he outscores his American rival by seven points. 

The battle for the teams’ title has a much tighter margin at the top of the standings. Hitech sit just nine points ahead of Campos Racing, who currently have all four of their competitors in the top 10 while Hitech only have championship leader Al Azhari in the same range. The battle for third in both championships is closer still, with three points separating Alex Powell and René Lammers and a single point differentiating MP Motorsport and Palou Motorsport.

All 28 drivers who competed at Jarama will race again this weekend, with no further additions to the grid. 

Report by Seb Tirado

Read the previous round’s report here.

Eurocup-4 Spanish Winter Championship: Round 3, Aragón

Circuit: MotorLand Aragón, 5.345 km

Schedule: All times local (UTC+1)

Friday 13 March

• 09:30–10:30: Official test
• 12:10–12:40: Free practice 1
• 15:40–16:10: Free practice 2

Saturday 14 March

• 09:00–09:20: Qualifying 1
• 11:50–12:25: Race 1
• 15:10–15:35: Sprint race 

Sunday 15 March

• 09:00–09:20: Qualifying 2
• 11:00–11:35: Race 2

How to follow: Live timing for all sessions will be available through Al Kamel Systems. All races will be streamed on the Spanish Winter Championship YouTube channel in English and Spanish.

Weather forecast: Sunny on Friday with overnight showers heading into Saturday. Partly cloudy with a northwesterly wind for the rest of the weekend. 

What to know: Eurocup-4 will visit MotorLand Aragón for the first time to hold its season finale, with Griffin Core by Campos represented atop both championships.

In the teams’ standings, the Campos satellite team currently have 137 points, 45 ahead of their Tecnicar counterpart T-Code. In the drivers’ standings, Griffin Core driver Noah Monteiro is on 90 points after taking two wins last time out at Jarama. He has a gap of 26 points over closest rival Nathan Tye. 

Fine margins separate the teams and drivers battling for third in their respective championships. Drivex on 68 points have a three-point lead on KCL by MP, with the former having only Tye in the top 10 of the drivers’ standings while the latter have both Reno Francot and Jarama sprint race winner Borys Łyżeń. Monteiro’s teammate Vivek Kanthan has 53 points, one more than T-Code’s Andrej Petrović, who took two podiums at Jarama. 

There is only one change for the grid this weekend. Despite appearing on this weekend’s entry list, Dante Cima will not be competing with GRS Team this weekend, it has been confirmed to Feeder Series. He entered but did not compete in the previous round.

Report by Seb Tirado

Read the previous round’s report here.

Formula Winter Series: Round 5, Barcelona

Circuit: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 4.657 km

Schedule: All times local (UTC+1) 

Thursday 12 March

• 10:00–10:50: Collective test 1
• 13:40–14:30: Collective test 2
• 16:25–17:10: Collective test 3 

Friday 13 March

• 10:00–10:50: Collective test 4
• 13:40–14:30: Collective test 5
• 16:25–17:10: Collective test 6

Saturday 14 March

• 10:30–10:45: Qualifying 1
• 10:50–11:05: Qualifying 2
• 14:05–14:35: Race 1

Sunday 15 March

• 11:35–12:05: Race 2
• 15:50–16:20: 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: Thursday and Saturday are set to be stormy and cloudy, but the weather should be mostly clear for both Friday and Sunday. 

What to know: The Formula Winter Series enters its last round of the season this weekend at Barcelona. 

McLaren junior Dries Van Langendonck won both the rookie championship and the overall drivers’ championship in Aragon, finishing the weekend with 226 points and a gap of 97 points over Thomas Bearman in second place. Behind the Briton is Ary Bansal, who was Van Langendonck’s closest title rival until his retirement in race three. He now has 120 points, 19 more than fourth-placed Oleksandr Savinkov. 

The battle in the teams’ championship is much closer. Rodin Motorsport lead with 308 points, three points ahead of US Racing, whilst Van Amersfoort Racing are currently third with 287 points. 

While exceptionally unlikely, Van Langendonck could lose the title if he is disqualified from two or more races; a new rule for 2026 states that any driver who is disqualified from a race for breaching the series’ technical regulations will have 10 points deducted from their total in the drivers’ standings. 

Last weekend, Van Langendonck topped the field once more with two race wins on Sunday. Bansal, meanwhile, achieved his second win of the season after passing Van Langendonck for the lead on the final lap of race one. 

Bansal did so despite making mid-race contact with Aleksander Ruta, who crossed the line ninth but suffered a wrist fracture and torn ligament as a result of the incident. He missed the last two races that weekend and subsequently confirmed on Instagram on Tuesday that he would not be competing in the final round because of the injury. 

This weekend, a new team will break into FWS in the form of Step Motorsport. The Danish outfit has previously competed in Nordic 4, with FWS driver Victor Poulsen part of the team in 2025. Their only driver this weekend, Erik Poulsen (#54), competed two rounds ago in Valencia with AS Motorsport. 

Oscar Repetto (#11) will return for the season finale as Alexandre Louza returns their shared Cram Motorsport car for the last time, with the Brazilian having been testing in his home country during the week. A similar switch is taking place at Jenzer Motorsport, where Georgiy Zasov (#25) inherits the car from Nicolás Cortés.

As his British F4 testing programme comes to an intermission, León Hedfors (#92) rejoins Campos Racing alongside new addition Timo Jüngling (#94), a fellow competitor in the 2026 British F4 season. The 16-year-old German was the runner-up in the 2025 KZ2 World Cup, and this weekend will mark his single-seater debut. As he is only competing in the final round, he will be classed as a guest driver and is ineligible to score points.

Of the other absent drivers, AKM Motorsport’s Valentino Del Grosso is attending GB4 testing in preparation for the upcoming season and will therefore not be present. Rahim Alibhai will extend his stay in Aragon after last weekend in FWS for the final round of the Eurocup-4 Spanish Winter Championship, in which he sits 24th. 

With the first round of F1 Academy taking place this weekend in Shanghai, Mathilda Paatz, Alisha Palmowski and Megan Bruce will shift their focus to their main campaigns. 

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: Red Bull Content Pool