Interview
Adrian Campos on flying start to 2026 season: ‘Wins change nothing, we can still improve’
Though Campos Racing sit second in the Teams’ Standings following the opening round of 2026, it is hard to argue that the reigning Champions are not the team to beat.
Eponymous Team Principal Adrian Campos says that things could have been even stronger for his outfit following a penalty for Théophile Nael that dropped the Frenchman off the podium.
Despite that setback, he says that the team is pleased with their early season pace and says that he is hopeful of a return for Ernesto Rivera and the Mexican driver joining the fray after his injury ruled him out of Round 1.
“I'm a bit unhappy because of the penalty for Théo. But anyway, it is what it is, and we need to live with that now. It would have been great to have both drivers on the podium, but still, it's a win from Ugo.
“Both drivers showed that they were very, very strong. They did a very good start. I hope that Ernesto comes back at 100% of his potential and can be also fighting with them at the top.”
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Melbourne continued an impressive run that Campos have been on that included capping off the 2025 campaign with victory and their first F3 Teams’ title.
Campos says that the team have continued to work in the same way and are enjoying the benefits of their hard work.
“We just continued what we know how to do. We were confident that our car was strong, and if we managed to have good drivers, as we do, we know that we will still be at the top.
“When you have a good car and you have good drivers, you can only be on top. So, yeah, we are very confident that we can continue like this all season.”
Speaking specifically about Rivera, who would be making his competitive F3 debut around the streets of Monaco in Round 2, the Team Principal said the Red Bull junior will be in at the deep end, before then facing tracks he has familiarity around.
“It's going to be challenging for him to race in Monaco without knowing the track. It will be very challenging, but then later we move to the rest of the European races.
“He will know not all of the tracks, but most of them, and then he will be able to show his potential, and hopefully it's easy enough to be fighting for the top five, at least.”
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Following the team’s Feature Race victory with Nikola Tsolov last season, Campos enters Round 2 hoping to go back-to-back around the Principality.
The team is taking nothing for granted however, something that Campos attributes to their growth in F3 and recent success.
“We have huge hopes for this race weekend in Monaco. It's a track that where we have always been very strong around, winning there in the Championship last year. We are also in a good position in the pitlane, which is always something positive in Monaco.
“Let's see how it goes. You never know, but we are confident and we have all that we need to do over the weekend.
“We are still growing. We are doing things very well. I have had the same people working together for a very long time and we are still improving. We can always do better. The drivers are very good, they are doing a great job, but they can always do better.
“So, as a team, we will keep improving even if we are winning races we cannot relax. I think that it is very important to keep the momentum, keep winning, and we will keep working hard to do things with common sense and trying to be better every day.”
Looking ahead to what comes next, the team will continue to use the gap in the calendar to comb through the data and plan how they can continue their trajectory.
No team will be standing still in the break, something Campos has underlined to his own team as well. Drivers will continue to ramp up their preparations at the team’s workshop ahead of Round 2, and what they hope will be another Monaco success story.
“We have more time to talk through everything very carefully. The engineers have more time to analyse all the data.
“Drivers have more time to prepare themselves for the next event. They have been coming here to the workshop. Obviously, we have discussed what we need to do based on Melbourne in order to prepare for the next races.
“We have started also a little bit with Monaco, but we still have time and we will do more prep before then that’s for sure."