Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov has already taken six victories so far this Formula 2 season. Mutual trust and confidence as well as their approach to qualifying have landed both team and driver at the top of their respective points tables. Feeder Series spoke to the championship leader about the relationship ahead of the series’ first visit to the Madring.

By Cliona Sheerin

At Campos’ first home race of the season at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the Bulgarian had the final say in the choice of tyre for the feature race. Tsolov’s decision to start on the hard tyres proved correct as he went from sixth on the grid to second on the road across the line. Although a post-race penalty saw him demoted off the podium, the team’s trust in him to make that decision is indicative of where their relationship stands.

“Obviously the team has a lot of confidence with me, and so do I,” Tsolov told Feeder Series in the pre-weekend roundtable. “It’s very important in the decision-making. In Barcelona, we managed to secure the better strategy. There are weekends that stuff works better and weekends that don’t. We have, every time, a straightforward plan which we follow. We always agree with each other. It’s key to be also honest, and with the experience we have together, we can do [that].”

Tsolov has previously spoken of his pride in working with Campos, a team that has already steered him to success in the junior categories. The partnership began in 2022, when a 15-year-old Tsolov took the Spanish F4 title with the team in dominant fashion, finishing off the podium in only three out of the 21 races. The two parties reunited last year in F3 with two victories and four further podiums placing Tsolov second in the final championship standings. Those results also helped Campos on their way to their first ever teams’ title in the series.

“We have built a really strong relationship over the years that we’ve worked together,” Tsolov continued. “Every category we’ve done, we’ve been super successful, so clearly there’s something that works in the dynamic between us. It is quite cool to see because in the end, across the years, I work with different people, different mechanics, engineers, et cetera, but they all have the same work ethic which shows why we’re competitive in every category.”

And this season, they picked up right where they left off with both Tsolov and Campos currently leading their respective championships in F2. Having racked up six wins, Tsolov sits at the top of the pile on 177 points with an 11-point lead heading to Madrid. 

Behind him and chipping away at that lead, however, is a familiar foe in the form of Rafael Câmara, who bested Tsolov for the F3 title last year. A key characteristic of Câmara’s 2026 season has been his qualifying performances, with eight front-row starts out of 10 for the Brazilian compared with Tsolov’s one at Monaco. 

But that isn’t a concern for the Red Bull junior, as he and his team value starting on the first few rows of the grid rather than at the very front. He has qualified in the top seven in all but one round – Miami, where his 10th place in qualifying earned him pole for the sprint race.

“We’ve always prioritised qualifying,” Tsolov said. “Obviously you want to start further ahead as you can, but in that way also we’ve prioritised qualifying of being in the top five, not essentially grabbing pole position. As often as you can, you just want to start ahead, in the front rows. And by the amount of wins we’ve had this year, it shows that you don’t really need to be on pole. I’ve won only one race from pole, which was Miami in the reverse grid.”

This weekend at the Madring street track, Tsolov said he would be employing a different approach to qualifying, similar to the one that secured him that front-row start around Monaco.

“This weekend, I believe it’s going to be slightly more important, closer to Monaco,” he said. “Monaco I was pole in my group. Because we knew qualifying was important, we really put all the focus there. And then, obviously, being in different groups, you can’t really control that, track condition changes. In my group, it was a little bit hotter, so maybe that slowed us down. Who knows, but I’ll be taking a similar approach and trying to put it all in quali this weekend.”

After two successive rounds away from the podium, Tsolov will be looking to restore his championship lead at new venue of the Madring, located roughly 308 kilometres away from his Campos team’s base in Valencia. The circuit is unknown to the entire F2 grid, with only F3 having tested in August around the 5.414-kilometre, 22-turn track.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency