- Formula 2 races in North America for the first time, in Miami and Montreal.
- War in the region erased Bahrain and Saudi Arabia from the calendar.
- Herta heads home, chasing Super Licence points that could land him F1 seat.
Formula 2 will race in North America for the first time in its history. Miami and Montreal will host Rounds 2 and 3 of the 2026 season, on May 1-3 and May 22-24, respectively, before the series returns to Europe for Monaco in June.
The announcement ends what could have been a damaging three-month gap in the championship calendar.
War in the Middle East forced the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian rounds, stripping the early season of two races just weeks after the opener in Melbourne.
Organisers moved quickly. The two North American venues, both already on the Formula 1 calendar, stepped in to fill the void and restore the season to its original 14 rounds.
From the Middle East to the Americas
Formula 2 opened its 2026 campaign at Albert Park and had been scheduled to follow Formula 1 to Sakhir and Jeddah.
When those rounds fell away, the series faced the real possibility of going dark until Monaco in early June, a wait of nearly three months after just one race weekend.
That prospect was clearly unacceptable. The series confirmed Miami and Montreal as replacement venues within weeks, a turnaround that required close coordination between Formula 2, the FIA, Formula 1 and the race promoters in both cities.
The move is more than a scheduling fix. It is the first time in the championship’s history that Formula 2 cars will compete on North American soil, a milestone that organisers have framed as the beginning of a new chapter in the series’ global reach.
Montreal will also see Formula 2 join F1 Academy as a support series, expanding the support bill at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Three entirely new venues now sit on the 2026 calendar: Miami, Montreal and Madrid.
What the key figures said
Formula 1 president and CEO Stefano Domenicali welcomed the revised calendar and credited the swift work done across the sport’s governing bodies and local promoters.
“Bruno and the whole F2 family have done a great job, working closely with us, the FIA, and the Miami and Montreal promoters, to ensure we limit the gap in racing for the championship this season,” Domenicali said.
He also made clear that the Middle East rounds remain part of the longer-term plan, expressing hope for “a swift return to stability” in the region.
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem placed the expansion in a wider context.
“Bringing the championship to North America via Miami and Montreal for the first time marks an important step in its continued global growth, strengthening the pathway alongside Formula One and connecting with new audiences,” he said.
For Ben Sulayem, the calendar change is not simply a reaction to crisis, but a signal of where the sport wants to go.
Formula 2 CEO Bruno Michel was candid about the difficulty of making it happen. “It was not an easy thing to do,” he said. “But bringing F2 to North America for the first time is really fantastic.”
Michel added that teams and drivers had welcomed the news with enthusiasm, and that racing in Miami and Montreal would offer them a genuinely new kind of challenge.
A timely opportunity for Colton Herta
Among the drivers heading to North America, one name stands out more than any other.
Colton Herta, the 26-year-old American who left IndyCar this year to join Hitech on the Formula 2 grid, will race in front of home crowds for the first time in his rookie season.
Herta arrives in the series with serious credentials. He has seven IndyCar seasons and nine wins to his name, along with two class victories at the 24 Hours of Daytona.
His Formula 2 debut in Melbourne brought six championship points and 10th place in the standings, a measured if unremarkable beginning.
The stakes are high. Herta must finish inside the top eight of the drivers’ championship to earn a Super Licence, the qualification required to race in Formula 1.
That credential would strengthen his prospects of a seat with Cadillac’s new Formula 1 team. Racing in Miami and Montreal, before crowds already familiar with American open-wheel racing, could not have come at a better time for him.
Where the Formula 2 championship stands
After Melbourne, Nikola Tsolov of Campos Racing leads the drivers’ standings on 25 points.
The Bulgarian driver recovered from a difficult sprint race to win the feature race at Albert Park, crossing the line 1.6 seconds clear of Invicta Racing’s Rafael Câmara.
Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen finished third. Câmara and Van Hoepen are level on 18 points in second and third place. With that feature race win, Tsolov became the first Bulgarian driver to take victory in the Formula 2 Championship.
The field now heads into genuinely unknown territory. No team has set up a garage at these venues for a Formula 2 weekend before. No driver has raced an F2 car in front of an American or Canadian Formula 1 crowd.
If Melbourne offered a preview of what this season could produce, Formula 2’s North American debut has every reason to deliver.
