Nine years. That is how long it took Formula 2 to reach North America. From its relaunch as a category in 2017 until this Saturday April 11th 2026, the championship that produced Lando Norris, George Russell, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri had never put its single-seaters on American soil. Today that changed. The FIA and Formula 2 officially confirmed that Miami and Montreal will be Rounds 2 and 3 of the 2026 championship, on May 1-3 and May 22-24 respectively.
The news arrived hours after organisers closed negotiations with the promoters of both Grands Prix. It was an operation executed in a matter of weeks almost days after the war in the Middle East forced the cancellation of the Sakhir and Jeddah rounds that had been scheduled for April. Without those two dates, F2 faced a gap of more than two months between the first round completed at Melbourne on March 6-8 and the next planned event at Monaco on June 4-7. For a championship that depends on continuous competitive rhythm and on its drivers accumulating Superlicence points toward Formula 1, that gap was unsustainable.
How they achieved what nobody had done before
Bruno Michel, Formula 2 CEO, acknowledged in the official statement that placing two rounds in North America in such a short time was not straightforward. They needed a race weekend that already had the Formula 1 paddock infrastructure, willing promoters and available logistics. Miami and Montreal met all those requirements and also represented an opportunity the category had been wanting to take for years but had never been able to materialise.
Stefano Domenicali, President and CEO of Formula 1, backed the announcement by highlighting that the entire F1 family worked alongside F2, the FIA and the promoters to limit the impact of the Middle East cancellations on the championship. Mohammed Ben Sulayem, FIA President, noted that the addition of Miami and Montreal is not just a logistical fix but an important step in the category’s global growth and in connecting with new audiences.
Oliver Oakes, Hitech team principal, celebrated the change in comments reported by RacingNews365: from a team standpoint they fully welcome the updated calendar and the addition of Miami and Montreal to the season. It is a positive outcome for everyone drivers, fans and teams to have more opportunities to race at such iconic venues.
The Herta effect: the consequence nobody wanted
There is one driver who reads this news with mixed feelings. Colton Herta, the 25 year-old American who left behind nine victories and eight IndyCar seasons to compete with Hitech in F2 as the first step toward Formula 1 with Cadillac, had advanced negotiations with Andretti Global to race a fourth car at the Indianapolis 500 on May 24th. Montreal on May 22nd makes that impossible. Andretti Global has already confirmed it will not field a fourth car without Herta.
It is the second time in a few weeks that international geopolitics has directly changed Herta’s sporting destiny. First Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were cancelled due to the war, which led F2 to seek replacements. Now that replacement coincides exactly with the most iconic date in American motorsport. For the Californian driver, the equation does not change: the goal is Formula 1. The Indy 500 will have to wait.
The complete revised 2026 F2 calendar
Round 1: Melbourne, March 6-8 (completed). Round 2: Miami, May 1-3. Round 3: Montreal, May 22-24. Round 4: Monaco, June 4-7. The rest of the calendar follows its original European structure through to the Losail and Abu Dhabi finals in November and December. The total of fourteen rounds remains intact.
The championship after Melbourne
One round and already there is drama. Nikola Tsolov, the first Bulgarian driver to win in Formula 2, leads with 25 points after conquering the Melbourne Feature Race with Campos Racing under the support of the Red Bull junior programme. Born in Sofia in 2006 the same year as Kimi Antonelli Tsolov arrived in F2 as one of the most anticipated rookies after finishing runner-up in the 2025 F3 championship. His Melbourne victory was a demonstration of control: he capitalised on a collision between the Rodin cars of Stenshorne and Dunne to take the lead and never surrender it.
Rafael Câmara, the 2025 F3 champion now competing with Invicta Racing and Ferrari’s programme, has 18 points, level with Laurens van Hoepen of Trident. Dino Beganovic took pole but suffered a mechanical failure in the Feature Race. Joshua Dürksen won the Sprint. And Colton Herta finished seventh, grading his weekend a “C minus” to the press brutal honesty from a driver accustomed to winning in the best categories in the world who is now learning from scratch the particularities of Pirelli tyres and the European format.
The story of a long overdue record
From its first modern edition in 2017, Formula 2 competed in Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Monaco, France, Austria, Great Britain, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Australia. Three continents. Never America. There were always logistical, cost and calendar reasons why the leap to the American continent never happened.
What a war could not achieve for the two cancelled Grands Prix, it did for F2: taking it where it had never been. Miami on May 1st and Montreal on May 22nd are the first pages of that history.
Key quotes
Bruno Michel, F2 CEO: bringing F2 to North America for the first time is really fantastic. It is something we have been wanting to do for a long time and that we can now finally make happen.
Stefano Domenicali, F1 CEO: it is great news for our fans, the drivers and the teams that Formula 2 will be racing in Miami and Montreal.
Colton Herta, to the Associated Press in January 2026 on his F2 adventure: I think it is great if it gets me to Formula 1 and I would be incredibly grateful I took the leap.
As a historical curiosity: F2 in its modern era has seen champions including Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Mick Schumacher, Oscar Piastri, Felipe Drugovich, Théo Pourchaire and Frederik Vesti. All of them on their way to Formula 1. None of them passed through Miami first.
Sources: FIA Formula 2 official fiaformula2.com, Formula1.com official statement, RacingNews365, Pit Debrief, GPblog, Grand Prix 247, AutoHebdo, Formula Live Pulse, F1i.com, Auto Action, Wikipedia F2 2026, FIA official statement
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