Formula 2 comes to North America

Formula 2 is finally crossing the Atlantic. In 2026, the main feeder series for Formula One will race in Miami on May 1-3 and Montreal on May 22-24, the first Formula 2 rounds ever held in North America. (formula1.com) That move happened because two earlier rounds disappeared. Formula 2 said the Bahrain round in Sakhir and the Saudi Arabia round in Jeddah will not take place in April, so Miami becomes Round 2 and Montreal becomes Round 3. (formula1.com) Formula 2 is where many future Formula One drivers learn to race on the same weekends, tracks, and TV schedule as the top series. The championship’s own site calls it “The Road to F1,” and its 2026 calendar still runs as 14 support events attached to Formula One weekends. (fiaformula2.com, fiaformula2.com) That makes Miami and Montreal more than extra stops on a map. They become the first North American weekends where fans can watch the ladder below Formula One in person instead of seeing only the top category. (fiaformula2.com) The timing lines up neatly with the 2026 Formula One calendar. Formula One is already scheduled for Miami on May 1-3 and Canada on May 22-24, so Formula 2 is plugging into two existing Grand Prix weekends rather than building standalone events from scratch. (formula1.com, fiaformula2.com) Miami is the flashier half of the change. Forbes described the race weekend as a city-scale hospitality package built around food experiences, music programming, and sponsor activations, and another Forbes report said the event drew 275,000 fans across the weekend in 2025. (forbes.com, forbes.com) Race organizers have pushed that even further in 2026. Forbes reported in January that Miami will debut an MSC Yacht Club hospitality structure measuring 264 feet long, 96 feet wide, and 50 feet tall inside the fake marina at Turns 5 through 9. (forbes.com) Adding Formula 2 turns that weekend into a fuller program, not just a longer one. Instead of one headline race on Sunday, Miami now gets a whole extra championship of sprint and feature races, plus the junior drivers who often become the next names on the Formula One grid. (fiaformula2.com, formula1.com) Montreal is a different kind of fit. The Canadian Grand Prix is one of Formula One’s older North American fixtures, so Formula 2’s arrival there gives the series a traditional circuit to balance Miami’s newer entertainment-first model. (formula1.com, fiaformula2.com) The result is a small calendar change that says a lot about where the sport is aiming. Formula 2 used to lose two Middle East rounds in April; now it gains two North American weekends in May, right where Formula One’s audience growth and event spending have been strongest. (formula1.com, forbes.com)