With Hamilton and Verstappen as examples, a new F1 candidate is growing

His Formula 3 title last year was a huge surprise, and this season, Leonardo Fornaroli (20) seems to be on his way to another one. Entering the summer break, the Italian from Invicta Racing leads the championship in Formula 2, ahead of drivers like Arvid Lindblad, Richard Verschoor and Alex Dunne. The path to Formula 1 appears to be open for Fornaroli.

A minor detail in the pursuit of F1: whereas most of his competitors have already found shelter in a junior programme of an F1 team, nobody has picked up Fornaroli yet - despite two years of dominance in the feeder series to F1.

Fornaroli follows his father's footsteps

Considering that Fornaroli is a relatively late bloomer, he was initially hardly interested in the sport in which his father had been active for many years. "I tried so many sports, but nothing interested me much. I didn't like motorsport at the start."

"But watching races, seeing him (my father) talking about his career and everything, at some point I wanted to try it. And the first time I went to try go-karts, I fell in love," Fornaroli begins in an exclusive interview with GPblog.

With his father as a pillar of support, Fornaroli grew as a driver every year. Only in the last few seasons has he been able to translate this growth into results - with the F3 title as the first highlight.

Leonardo Fornaroli leads the F2 championship entering the summer break

The best day of his life

That's almost a year ago now. "I remember it as the best day of my life. I couldn't believe I just won the championship. That day, I finally achieved something big in my career. Because before, I never won anything big. So finally I arrived at a good level, I was really satisfied."

However, the Italian is certainly not satisfied with only that, now that he has tasted the pleasure of winning. That's why he wants to improve every day. "You always want to do the best. You cannot always be happy, always satisfied. Even when you are on pole position or you win races there is always something you can improve," he says this, being critical of himself.

Learning from Hamilton and Verstappen

Fornaroli possesses a trait that he recognises at the absolute top in Formula 1: being selfish - in the word's positive sense. His examples, Lewis Hamilton and nowadays Max Verstappen are just like that on the track.

“Lewis is one of the best drivers in the world. Watching him in his prime years, he was just a monster. There is a lot to learn from him. The last few years, I have been watching Max [Verstappen] a lot, since 2021, when he won his first world championship.”

Fornaroli learns a lot from Max Verstappen

"In these past years, he's been like a robot for me. So I have a lot to learn from him. Sometimes he is maybe a bit too aggressive, but it's the right attitude if you want to achieve great results. I mean, you only have to think about yourself, without losing the respect of others."

Fornaroli certainly has respect for his direct competitors in F2, but in the end, he does want to conquer that coveted title. Not next year, now. After all, F1 teams are often very black-and-white: if you don't manage to win the F2 championship as a rookie, you're often no longer interesting. If you manage to be the best in your debut year, so much is possible.

Fornaroli is well aware of this. "Absolutely. Because only amazing drivers are going to Formula One, so you have to perform. We have to show that we are capable of performing well this year."

"It's not easy because you have a lot of new stuff to deal with, but so far we're in a good position and I will try to improve as a driver in every aspect, and try to do my best," the Italian concluded.