Nikola Tsolov didn’t win anything at Imola on Wednesday. He didn’t set a headline lap time, didn’t beat anyone, didn’t even race. And yet the day might matter more to his career than most of the podiums he’s collected in Formula 2 this year, because he’s just quietly removed the last piece of red tape standing between him and a Formula 1 seat.
The Bulgarian, who leads the F2 standings, has spent the year waiting his turn while rivals with lesser championship credentials got their hands on F1 machinery. That’s not paranoia, it’s the rulebook: a superlicence candidate needs 40 points, a Grade A licence, a passed FIA theory exam, and crucially, 100km of running in a Formula 1 car before they’re even eligible for a free-practice outing. Tsolov had everything except the mileage. Now he doesn’t.
690km in a Day, Job Done
Driving the Racing Bulls VCARB 02 in a TPC test, Tsolov didn’t just scrape past the 100km threshold, he obliterated it, racking up 690km across the day. It’s the kind of number that makes the “will he, won’t he” superlicence chatter look almost quaint in hindsight. He’s cleared it, and by some distance.
“First TPC day in a Formula 1 car done, and I’m super happy with how today went. I really enjoyed every lap, and it’s difficult to put into words what it means to finally get this opportunity.” – Nikola Tsolov
Tsolov also thanked Racing Bulls and the Red Bull junior programme for finally giving him the chance, as reported by Crash.net. Given how long he’s been circling the paddock as F1’s most obvious apprentice-in-waiting, “finally” is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
Why This Actually Matters
This isn’t just box-ticking for its own sake. Under current rules, every team must run a rookie, defined as a driver with fewer than two grand prix starts, across a set number of sessions this season. Arvid Lindblad has already covered two of Racing Bulls’ obligations simply by being the only rookie on the 2026 grid, while Ayumu Iwasa has had a single outing apiece for Red Bull and Racing Bulls. That leaves Racing Bulls with one more slot to fill and Red Bull with three, and Tsolov has just made himself eligible to fill any of them.
In other words, the mileage requirement was the one thing that could have kept him out of an actual practice session even if Red Bull wanted him in the car. That excuse is gone. If Laurent Mekies and company fancy putting him out in FP1 somewhere before the season’s done, there’s no longer a regulatory reason to say no.
The Team Talks Him Up, Obviously
Racing Bulls boss Alan Permane offered the kind of praise that team principals always offer after a junior does exactly what was asked of him, though it’s worth noting he didn’t feel the need to oversell it.
“Today was a really positive step for Nikola. He adapted quickly to the car and showed the composure you want to see from a driver taking on an F1 car for the first time.” – Alan Permane
Permane also framed the test as part of the team’s broader junior development pipeline, the same pipeline that’s already produced its fair share of graduates. Fine words, but they’re also precisely what you’d expect a team to say about a driver it’s clearly grooming for a race seat. Read into that whatever you like.
The 2027 Puzzle Fills In Another Piece
Tsolov has been strongly linked with a Racing Bulls seat for 2027 for a while now, and the wider 2027 grid picture is still very much a work in progress, with roughly half the field yet to be confirmed. What’s changed this week isn’t the destination, everyone already assumed Tsolov was headed for a superlicence and a seat somewhere in the Red Bull ecosystem, it’s the fact that the last practical obstacle in his way has now been cleared with something to spare.
It’s also a reminder of how oddly bureaucratic the road into F1 has become. A driver can dominate F2, tick every points box the FIA demands, and still be sat waiting for a team to hand him enough kilometres in a car to satisfy a mileage rule that has nothing to do with actual talent. Tsolov’s problem was never speed. It was paperwork. Now it isn’t even that.
A Busy Day at Imola All Round
Tsolov wasn’t the only story out of Imola. Racing Bulls also used the day to run a film day featuring a variant of the so-called “macarena wing”, the rotating rear-wing element that’s spread across the paddock since Ferrari debuted the concept over the winter, with Red Bull and McLaren having since built their own versions. If the feedback from Imola is positive, Racing Bulls could introduce it at Monza, a circuit whose long straights make any efficiency gain from active aero rather appealing. That’s a separate development story in its own right, but it underlines just how much is happening behind the scenes at a team some assume is merely Red Bull’s feeder operation.
The Cynical Read
None of this guarantees Tsolov a race seat. Superlicence eligibility and mileage compliance are necessary conditions, not promises. But it’s hard not to notice how neatly the timing lines up: a rookie-outing quota still needing to be filled, a junior driver suddenly cleared to fill it, and a team principal already talking him up in the warmest possible terms. Red Bull’s junior pipeline has a habit of making these things look like coincidence right up until the moment they announce it as inevitable. Don’t be surprised if Tsolov’s next headline isn’t about kilometres completed, but about a race seat confirmed.
