Motorsport Week spoke with Leonardo Fornaroli after his dramatic FIA Formula 3 World Championship win to discuss what the future holds for the Italian.
Picture it, Trident’s Fornaroli entered the final few corners of the F3 season in fourth place, tucked right behind Christian Mansell. Prema’s Gabriele Mini was running in second. Without the future knowledge that Mini would later be disqualified, the watching Tifosi knew only that the leading Italian driver was about to take the third-tier championship title.
That was until Fornaroli lunged to the inside of Mansell at the Parabolica corner, snatching third and with it the F3 title.
“I knew I had to overtake Chris [Mansell] in front of me to win the championship,” Fornaroli explained to Motorsport Monday. “Going to the last corner, a lot of things went through my mind. The image of me losing the championship, and I said, ‘okay, this cannot be possible, I cannot lose the championship like this, I have to invent something.’ I just prayed that they were not going to cover the inside in the last corner, then just before the breaking point they both went back. So I said, ‘this is my time, all or nothing.’ I launched it completely on the inside, luckily Chris saw me in the mirror, so it was very fair and correct to leave the space on the inside. I think there was maximum respect between each other, so I managed to take the podium and the title in the last corner. Winning the championship like this, it’s even more special, because taking it in the last corner is something you can’t describe.”
READ MORE: Leonardo Fornaroli snatches F3 title at final corner as Meguetounif takes Monza Feature win
Winning the F3 title at Monza a ‘special’ moment for Leonardo Fornaroli
It was a Hollywood moment for Fornaroli, and his crowning glory was made all the sweeter for the young Italian with it taking place at Monza. An Italian driver, winning the title for an Italian team, at the Temple of Speed…
“It’s my home track, it’s the track closest to my house,” he acknowledged. “It’s special for me, because I had my first podium in Formula 4 and first front-row start, and the support from the home crowd is amazing. Last year was amazing too, but this year was even more so, the race in front of them was super cool, and all my family was there to support me, so it was a special weekend for me. When I took pole position and when I finished race two, I saw all the people on the grandstands cheering for me, and yeah, it was amazing.”
Fornaroli’s jubilation was in stark contrast to the dejection of Prema’s Mini. Mini and Fornaroli fought for the title all season long, but the latter revealed their longstanding friendship meant the battle was built on respect.
“Outside the circuit, I have a very good relationship with Gabriele,” Fornaroli revealed. “We were teammates in karting back in 2016, then until two years ago, we were training together, sleeping together in the same room, and also now we are playing together on the computer, on the simulator, almost every evening. We are very good friends outside the track, but inside, of course, we are rivals, but every time I raced with him, we had always maximum respect. Of course, I’d race him because we were fighting for a world championship, so both of us did the maximum to finish in front of the other, but always taking in mind that we couldn’t do any bad moves to each other.”
Leonardo Fornaroli unfazed by lack of F3 race wins
Close friends fighting to the last breath on track isn’t the only thing that makes the 2024 F3 title battle unique. Remarkably, Fornaroli won the Championship without taking a single race victory. Instead, the Trident driver finished every race, finished outside the top 10 on just two occasions and took seven podiums. A consistent campaign was the winning formula for Fornaroli, who holds little regret over failing to reach the top step of a Formula 3 podium.
“Now that I won the championship, of course, I don’t care if I didn’t win any races,” he said. “The key goal of this season was to be always in the top five, top 10, trying to score as many points as possible in every race without doing any bad mistakes. Also watching [Gabriel] Bortoleto’s season of last year, he won the first two races, then he limited himself to stay always in the top five, top 10 and always scoring points. He won the championship with quite a lot of gap, so I said, ‘okay, I have to do like him.’ I think we managed to do it quite well. We finished only two Sprint races outside the points. Even if we didn’t take any wins, we managed to take the championship.”
READ MORE: F3 Champion Leonardo Fornaroli lands 2025 Invicta Racing F2 seat
Jumping into Formula 2
Just like Bortoleto, Fornaroli is jumping from an F3 title run to a FIA Formula 2 rookie campaign with Invicta Racing. Bortoleto is on course to win the title with the Invicta outfit and Fornaroli couldn’t be happier to be following the same path.
“For me, it’s amazing to be with them next year,” Fornaroli said. “Jumping from a top team in F3 to a top team in F2 is the best thing for me. Also, watching what Gabriel is doing, he spoke very well about the team. I also spent some time already with the team and I’m feeling absolutely amazing with them. When there is time to be funny, they’re funny, but when there is time to be serious, they’re very serious. It’s an amazing team and I can’t wait to work with them next year.”
Fornaroli will have to wait some time for his F2 racing debut and he had to watch on as his F3 rivals Mini, Mansell and Luke Browning all got the chance to compete at Baku in September. With Oliver Bearman stepping up in place of Kevin Magnussen at Haas for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Prema called upon Mini to deputise and he impressed, finishing third on debut. Mansell has replaced Roman Stanek for the remainder of the F2 season at Trident and he scored two top 10 results in Azerbaijan. Browning, meanwhile, has filled the vacancy left by fellow Williams Academy driver Zak O’Sullivan at ART Grand Prix and finished seventh in the Baku Feature Race.
Leonardo Fornaroli looks ahead to 2025
Fornaroli will join in on the F2 fun next year along with another talented F3 graduate in Red Bull Junior Arvid Lindblad, who has signed with Campos for 2025. The new F3 champion is among a talented crop of drivers graduating to the next level.
“I think [F2] will be like a second Formula 3 championship,” Fornaroli said. “But to race with them, it’s absolutely fun for me. I think it will be another good experience because they’re very good drivers. They gave me a hard time this year and I can’t wait to fight with them again next year. It was very interesting to see Gabriele, Christian and Luke race [in Baku] because all three had basically no experience and it was their first time in Baku. I have to say they surprised me because I think they did very well, especially in the races. I think it will be a hard challenge next year, but as I said, I can’t wait again to be back on track.
“I said congratulations to all three and Gabriele told me that the car is a bit more difficult to drive, tyre management is completely different and the approach to the race is also very different.”
With his rivals getting a head start in F2, Fornaroli is focused on his preparations.
“We have six days of testing before the race in Melbourne,” he explained. “It’s not so much, but I will give my best to get a good result and I will prepare for next season by training as much as I can. I’ll also spend some time with the engineers and with the whole team to try and prepare for next year as well as possible.”
Fornaroli has perhaps sealed one of the most memorable F3 titles in recent years and he, along with his rivals, is well poised to go on to greater success in 2025.