Beganovic started karting in 2011. He won multiple national championships, such as the Swedish OK Junior karting category in 2018.[2] In 2019, Beganovic won the OK category in both the Swedish and Italian championships and finished second in WSK Euro Series the same year.[3][4]
Lower formulae
In 2020 Beganovic made his single-seater debut, competing in the Italian F4 Championship with Prema Powerteam.[5] There, he began with a podium during the Misano opener,[6] before securing a first pole position the next round at Imola.[7] He returned to the podium in Mugello, scoring a double podium for his efforts.[8] He took his maiden single-seater win during the second Imola round, as he led every lap from pole position in a weekend which included a complete podium sweep.[9][10] With the aforementioned win, six podiums and 179 points, Beganovic placed third behind Francesco Pizzi and championship winner Gabriele Minì in the overall standings.[11] He also participated in select rounds of the ADAC Formula 4 with Prema, scoring twelve points across two weekends.[12][13]
Beganovic made his Formula Three debut in 2021, competing in both the F3 Asian Championship and the Formula Regional European Championship with Prema.[14] He began his former season with an impressive double second place in Dubai,[15] before racking up two more podiums in the remaining two rounds that he competed in, placing seventh in the overall standings with five rookie wins.[16]
In his main campaign, Beganovic experienced a tough first half of the season, only managing to score twelve points with a best finish of eighth twice.[17] However, he impressed with a fourth place and the rookie win when the second half of the season began in Spa-Francorchamps,[18] before securing a first podium in Valencia.[19] Beganovic took his first pole position for the final race of the season in Monza,[20] but he retired after being involved in a collision with teammate David Vidales while fighting for the lead.[21] He finished the season thirteenth in the standings, scoring two rookie wins, one podium and 53 points.
During the 2022 pre-season, Beganovic took part in the Formula Regional Asian Championship with Mumbai Falcons.[22] After technical issues blighted his progress during the first round,[23] Beganovic bounced back with a second place podium for the first Dubai round.[24] His only win came during the second Dubai round, in a weekend where he also claimed a third place.[25] Despite a non-scoring round 4,[26] Beganovic ended his campaign with a double podium during the second Yas Marina round, allowing to finish fifth in the standings with one win, five podiums and 130 points.[27]
Beganovic remained in the Formula Regional European Championship with Prema Powerteam.[28] He began the season in perfect fashion in Monza, taking his first FRECA win from pole before following it up with second the next day.[29][30] He won for a second time the next time out in Imola after original winner Gabriele Minì was penalised.[31] Beganovic secured a third victory in Monaco and a double Paul Ricard rostrum further extended his championship lead to 63 points.[32][33] Although his podium streak ended the next round in Zandvoort, he managed to rescue a third place during the second race.[34] Beganovic was forced to cope with his first non-podium round at the Hungaroring,[35] but returned in style with a final win of the year in Spa-Francorchamps.[36] After another double podium finish at the Red Bull Ring,[37] Beganovic clinched the title by finishing fourth in Mugello with one race to spare.[38] He had achieved four wins, thirteen podiums and 300 points to win the championship with one race to spare.[39]
On 20 September, Prema announced that Beganovic would be participating in a three-day FIA F3 test at Jerez, alongside Paul Aron and Zak O'Sullivan.[41] A month later, Beganovic was confirmed to drive for the team in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, having the "FDA [do] everything to get 2023 F3 seat at Prema".[42][43] The campaign began with promise, as the Swede took his maiden podium during the feature race at the Bahrain season opener, having come through from his starting spot of eighth.[44][45] A disappointing round in Melbourne described by Beganovic as "not easy" was followed by his second feature race podium at Monaco, where the Prema driver made use of having set the fastest lap in his qualifying group to take second place on Sunday, half a second shy of Gabriele Minì.[46]Barcelona, described by Beganovic as "not [his] strongest circuit", yielded a mixed bag, as the Swede compensated for a retirement in the sprint race owing to a collision caused by Grégoire Saucy to finish third during the feature race, which moved him to third in the standings.[47][48][49] At the next round in Austria, he qualified on the front row, though he dropped back on Sunday due to high amounts of tyre degradation, which he explained had come as a result of him pushing "way too hard" in the early stages of the contest.[50]
In qualifying for the event at Silverstone, an engine issue befell the FDA member's car before he could set a flying lap, forcing him to start from last place. Despite gaining a total of 33 places throughout the two races, Beganovic was forced to cope with his first non-scoring round of the campaign.[51] A swift bounce-back in the form of a second place in the feature race at the Hungaroring followed, with the Swede completing a Prema one-two, trailing teammate O'Sullivan by two seconds at the finish.[52]
Beganovic remained with Prema for post-season testing in Jerez, where he set the fastest time overall on the second day.[53][54][55]
Beganovic remained with Prema Racing for the 2024 season.[56] After achieving pole position in the first round of the season in Bahrain, he had an issue off the line, resulting in him being passed by the whole field in the first corner. However,he was able to recover to P13.[57] At the following round in Melbourne, Beganovic won in the feature race from third on the grid. he passed his teammate and the race leader on lap 12 and lap 14, respectively to get his maiden feature race win.[58]
In Austria, Beganovic moved into second place in the beginning of the race, staying within DRS range of Luke Browning for the majority of the race. However, after he lost DRS, Minì, who'd just been battling to maintain third, managed to pass Beganovic for second on the penultimate lap. Beganovic had to settle for third as a result. This marked his second podium of the season.[59] After fighting with significant tyre wear, he settled for third place in the sprint at the Hungaroring.[60]
Beganovic clinched his second win in the sprint race at Spa after getting back past Gabriele Minì early on in the difficult conditions.[61] Beganovic remained in championship contention after the sprint race in Monza, after achieving P4, but needed a win and the fastest lap in the feature race and have Leonardo Fornaroli score no points to be able to clench the championship (he and Fornaroli would be tied on points, but Beganovic would have the tiebreaker due to the number of race wins). Unfortunately,the long shot opportunity for the championship did not come through as he had contact in the middle of the race. Beganovic recovered from P17 to P9 in his final F3 race. He ended up P6 in the championship, losing out to P5.[62]
FIA Formula 2 Championship
2024
Beganovic made the step up to Formula 2 for the final two rounds of the 2024 season with DAMS Lucas Oil, replacing Juan Manuel Correa and partnering Jak Crawford.[63] On his F2 debut, he managed to qualify P4.While he failed to get points in the sprint race after an incident caused by Miyata, Beganovic finished fifth in the Qatar feature race.[64] The following round, he secured himself P5 in qualifying.[65] After a post-race disqualification for Paul Aron, Beganovic got his first podium in Formula 2 in the Abu Dhabi sprint race, coming third.[66] The next day, he finished seventh, meaning that he scored points in all but one of his races and started no lower than P6 for any of them.[67]
At the start of 2020 and his single-seater career, Beganovic was announced to be joining the Ferrari Driver Academy.[69] During the Covid-19 lockdown, Beganovic raced for Ferrari in the Bahrain Virtual GP.[70]
Personal life
Beganovic was born in Linköping, Sweden. His parents, Fikret and Mirnesa emigrated to Sweden from Bosnia and Herzegovina before he was born. He has a younger brother, Emir, who plays football for ÅFF.[71]
Beganovic is an avid sim-racer and was a member of the famed Team Wrongline. He participated in many races and social events for the time during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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