“When I crossed the finish line, all the pressure I had during the weekend and during the season went down, and I’m the happiest man in the world. It’s one of the best days of my life.”
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The Making Of A Champion
Leonardo Fornaroli’s endeavour into motorsport began at around the age of ten when he started karting competitively, first winning the Mini Academy class of the Championkart championship in 2016.
Fornaroli’s final year in karting proved to be his most successful, becoming the front-runner in the 2019 WSK Euro Series and finishing third in the prestigious Trofeo Andrea Margutti.
He was then selected as one of five by ACI Sport and the Ferrari Driver Academy to participate in the 16thedition of the annual Supercorso Federale event.
Testing a Formula 4 car for the first time at the Supercorso Federale, Fornaroli then made his Italian F4 debut in 2020 with Iron Lynx. He finished the Championship in 9th position with 108 points.
Fornaroli remained in the series with Iron Lynx in 2021, making him the highest-placed driver in the 2020 standings to return. Achieving points in every race he finished, Fornaroli finished the season at fifth in the overall standings.
Formula Regional was Fornaroli’s next challenge in 2022, competing for Trident alongside F4 rivals Tim Tramnitz and Roman Bilinski.
He finished eighth in the overall standings, marking him as the best-placed rookie, significantly ahead of both of his teammates.
Fornaroli participated in the FIA post-season test with Trident at the end of September 2022 with Oliver Goethe and Gabriel Bortoleto.
On 3 December 2022, it was announced that the driver would be part of the team’s 2023 line-up with both Goethe and Bortoleto.
At the end of the 2023 season, Fornaroli ranked 11th in the standings with 69 points, celebrating three podiums and one pole position.
Fornaroli and Trident continued their relationship for the 2024 FIA Formula 3 season.
“I felt amazing with Trident these two years. Now it’s like a second family to me,” said Fornaroli.
“I also did Formula Regional European Championship with them in order to adapt even more to the team. With my engineer, we did an incredible job. I’m super proud and I can’t thank them enough.”
The Winning Season
Consistency was key to Fornaroli’s Championship winning season.
A surprising statistic of zero race wins this season has been overshadowed by seven podiums, a pole position, three front-row starts and just two sprint races which didn’t see him finish in the points.
“With Trident, we worked a lot to improve my race pace compared to last year which was a weak point of mine,” said Fornaroli.
“This year, I definitely did a step forward and to be always there in all the races without too many mistakes allowed me to gain a lot of points, Even if I didn’t have any wins.”
A lack of a win may have been perceived as an overbearing significance to Fornaroli just a few weeks ago. However, now he has taken the Championship title, the weight may not appear as heavy.
“Of course, now I care less, but once the adrenaline has gone down, I’ll start to analyse […], and I will look at it all later to try and improve for the future and to take the first win in these categories.”
The Winning Weekend
Fornaroli headed into the final weekend at Monza just one point ahead of his closest rival Gabriele Mini and six ahead of Luke Browning.
“I knew that the pace was very strong. We took Pole Position on Friday, then yesterday [Saturday] I managed to do a good race, a good recovery and score some points on Gabriele.”
The Italian finished in eighth position in the final Sprint Race of the season, with Mini finishing in ninth position.
“Today, despite my race not being perfect- I have to say I’m not fully happy with my performance, we took all the points I gained on him and Luke in previous rounds and managed to win even if I didn’t finish in front of him.”
As Fornaroli admitted, his final race was not perfect, with Monza’s often chaotic and unforgiving nature remaining prevalent.
“The mess started with my mistake into Ascari. In the lap before during the Safety Car, I saw that the corner was full of dust but I wasn’t expecting it to be so slippery. So I did my normal line, completely lost the back end and lost three positions. I knew I had to recover as many positions as possible so I pushed a lot on the tyres to try and overtake everyone.”
Unsurprisingly, his thoughts were quick to turn to his closest rivals.
“When Gabriele and Mansell passed me I asked my engineer if I was still Champion. He said no, absolutely you have to take Mansell in front of you.”
Fornaroli rounded off the season with a second position in the final Feature Race, with Trident teammate Sami Megeutounif taking first position.
With Monza being the driver’s home race, there was nowhere more fitting to be crowned champion, hailed by his home crowd.
“Monza is a circuit that I love. It’s my home track. I got my first podium here in Formula 4, so it’s very special.”
He embraced fellow Italian and Championship title runner-up Mini in a hug in Parc Ferme after the race, reminiscing on the title fight this season.
“Yeah, they didn’t make my life easy,” Fornaroli said referring to his Formula 3 rivals.
“Gabriele did a very good race, unfortunately Luke had contact in the first lap that I saw on the big screen while driving. That was extremely unlucky because he’s been a very good driver and he’s demonstrated his speed this year. With Gabriele, I had a very good fight today. He was going to beat me until the last corner but then I managed to overtake Christian in front of me.”
The Future For Fornaroli
In 2025, Fornaroli will graduate to FIA Formula 2, competing for Invicta Racing as he becomes the first driver announcement for next year’s F2 season.
Later this year, he is also set to participate in the post-season test for the team in Abu Dhabi.
“I’m so happy to be able to celebrate winning the F3 championship with this news and I cannot wait to step up to Formula 2 next season,” said Fornaroli.
“Invicta Racing has proven itself over many years to be one of the best teams in Formula 2, including this season. I’m really excited to work with the team for the 2025 season. I want to take this opportunity to thank Trident for the past three years, they really are the best team in F3. To go from the best team in F3 to the best in F2 is a truly a dream come true.”
Featured Image Credit: Formula Motorsport Limited
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