With out fail, each driver and each group in any motorsport class you can care to say will inform you yearly that consistency is their primary goal. Sure, there may even be the standard spiel about title aspirations, however all know that bagging factors at each spherical is essential to having any hope of difficult for that prime spot.
It’s, nevertheless, past uncommon for a driver to take it to the acute that Leonardo Fornaroli did in System 3 this time period. The Trident driver clinched the title with an overtake on the final nook of the final lap at Monza, to attain his seventh podium of the season, earlier than a post-race stewards resolution gave him a extra comfy margin within the last standings.
Fornaroli ascended to the third step of the rostrum on 5 events in 2024 and twice – together with on the Monza finale – reached the second step. However remarkably, and in a primary for F3, he didn’t climb to the highest step as soon as.
Enter the consistency tag, which is how Fornaroli toppled a area that produced 12 completely different winners in 20 races. Zero retirements and solely two failures to attain factors meant he added to his tally on extra events than any driver. The following closest to this file was Campos driver Oliver Goethe, who missed the ultimate weekend after stepping in to exchange Williams-bound Franco Colapinto in F2, with 5 (together with Monza) nil factors returns.
Having been requested when a race win would come his means with rising frequency because the season progressed, Fornaroli grins when telling Motorsport.com: “Now that I’ve received the championship, I don’t care if I didn’t win any races. However it will have been even higher with one or two wins.
“Truly, there have been some possibilities however we had been very unfortunate. The primary one was in Melbourne as a result of one set of tyres in qualifying wasn’t working nicely and was vibrating rather a lot, so we needed to take one other set and began the characteristic race on used tyres in comparison with the others. Perhaps with new tyres, we may have taken the win.
Fornaroli was by no means on the highest step, however took residence the final word prize on the finish of the season
Picture by: Pink Bull Content material Pool
“Additionally, in Imola there was an excellent likelihood to take the win, however everyone knows what occurred there; the automobile shut down on the straight due to a bump and we misplaced a whole lot of time. However we nonetheless completed P3.
“The final one was Monza. I believe with out the factor that occurred in Ascari [when he made a mistake and ran though the gravel, dropping positions], there was additionally a very good likelihood to take the win. However anyway, we took an important win so proper now, I don’t care.”
Arriving in Monza for the season-ending weekend, any one in every of six drivers may have taken the title. However Fornaroli, Gabriele Mini (Prema) and Luke Browning (Hitech), break up by simply six factors pre-weekend, had been the one contenders who had greater than merely a mathematical hope of achieving glory.
“We took an important win so proper now, I don’t care”
Leonardo Fornaroli
This threw up a peculiar stat from trendy period F3 seasons passed by, with no championship-winning driver having ever claimed a race victory on the season-ending weekend. This file extends by means of to the GP3 period, which pre-dated the formation of present F3 in 2019, all the best way again to 2013 when champion Daniil Kvyat topped the rostrum in race one in Abu Dhabi.
Fornaroli’s hopes of ending that run appeared brilliant after qualifying, the place he secured pole for the characteristic race. That meant he would begin twelfth for the sooner dash outing on the partially reversed grid, however he was amongst a raft of drivers penalised for driving unnecessarily slowly in qualifying and shuffled again to sixteenth.
What adopted was a champion’s drive, as he recovered to eighth with the quickest lap. Having began two locations forward, Mini was solely ninth. Browning took sixth, however would solely begin thirteenth for the characteristic race and spun out early, organising an all-Italian duel for the crown.
Nonetheless issues seemed to be slipping away from Fornaroli, who was battling tyre put on and heavy flat spots in his bid to recuperate from the off at Ascari. This all arrange an exciting last lap to the yr, the 19-year-old remembers: “Earlier than the final lap, I requested my engineer if I used to be nonetheless P1 within the standings with P4, and so they stated ‘no, proper now you’re one level behind Gabriele, so that you completely must overtake Chris (Mansell) in entrance of you’.
Fornaroli battled Alex Dunne for the lead within the early phases of the Monza finale earlier than dropping again and having to struggle again to 3rd – which turned second with Mini’s disqualification
Picture by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Pictures
“It was like a chilly bathe as a result of from an excellent place, I used to be going to lose the championship in a really dangerous means. So I stated ‘OK, I’ll must invent one thing’.
“They began to struggle a bit in T1, so I recovered a little bit of the hole that I’d misplaced within the penultimate lap. I attempted the primary transfer within the second chicane, however my entrance tyres had been utterly destroyed. I locked up, we each lower the chicane, and I gave again the place.
“The principle focus was to have an excellent exit from Lesmo 2 and I had a very good exit. However, within the Ascari chicane, I knew it was the final likelihood as a result of on the final nook, it is extremely troublesome to overhaul.
“He defended very nicely, so I couldn’t get it. After which, going into the final nook, I stated: ‘I can not lose it, I’m shedding the championship, it can’t be actual’. Numerous issues went by means of my thoughts – the picture of me shedding the championship.
“So I stated, ‘OK, I’ve to do one thing’. I prayed that they weren’t going to cowl the within however fortunately, they went again onto the best line earlier than the braking level. I knew it was the final likelihood, all or nothing.
“I ship it on the within. Fortunately, Chris noticed me, so he left the house. He was particularly reasonable and proper, and we managed to take again the title and the rostrum on the final nook of the final lap. After I crossed the end line, all the pressures that I had went down and I used to be the happiest man on the planet.”
That it was finally not vital, as Mini was disqualified for operating tyre pressures beneath the minimal prescribed limits, and Fornaroli was boosted to second behind winner Sami Meguetounif, was moot. Requested how loud his launch of emotion was on the group radio, Fornaroli provides: “I believed I used to be going to have a coronary heart assault!
“We had been all screaming so loudly and after I received out of the automobile, we had been all leaping collectively. I used to be like, ‘I’m going to die!’ nevertheless it was a particular second for all of us. Additionally, Trident had back-to-back drivers’ champions, so it was wonderful. I believe additionally from exterior, it was wonderful to observe. I believe it was the very best race of the season.”
Fornaroli thought he was “going to have a coronary heart assault” when celebrating his triumph
Picture by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Pictures
An inspirational determine in Fornaroli’s rise has been the outgoing F3 champion, present F2 factors chief and 2025 Sauber F1 driver, Gabriel Bortoleto. The Brazilian received the 2023 F3 crown with Trident, similar to Fornaroli, and his Invicta F2 seat might be crammed by Fornaroli when he graduates on the finish of the marketing campaign.
“The goal was to be constantly within the factors as a result of, watching his season final yr, he received the primary two races after which simply completed within the factors at nearly each race and received the title with a whole lot of hole [45 points] in comparison with second,” explains Fornaroli. “The aim was to at all times keep there with out over-pushing or doing silly errors or crashing into different drivers within the race.”
He provides: “We’re excellent pals. I’m very pleased when he does nicely and he’s very pleased after I’m doing nicely. I took him as an inspiration this yr to attain this outcome and he spoke very nicely about Invicta to me this season, so we labored lots to try to be part of them and finally, we did it. Now, I’ll attempt to do like him subsequent yr as a result of he’s doing an incredible season.”
“I believed I used to be going to have a coronary heart assault. We had been all screaming so loudly and after I received out of the automobile, we had been all leaping collectively. I used to be like, ‘I’m going to die'”
Leonardo Fornaroli
Not like a lot of his friends within the junior classes, Fornaroli isn’t but linked to an F1 younger driver scheme, though his champion standing has led to early discussions starting with multiple group.
Waiting for his rookie F2 season, Fornaroli hopes to ship extra of the identical consistency that paid off so nicely in F3 and has taken confidence from the performances of friends who made an early commencement earlier than F2’s autumn hiatus in Baku.
“For me, consistency is an important half if you wish to obtain good outcomes by way of drivers’ standings,” he assesses. “Watching this yr’s outcomes, I’ll attempt to arrive there and be aggressive from the beginning. However we’ll see.
“Additionally, watching what the opposite F3 drivers – Chris, Luke and Gabriele – what they did in Baku, they had been very fast from the beginning. So now I’ve extra motivation going into subsequent yr.”
Fornaroli will drive for the mighty profitable Invicta Racing in F2 subsequent time period
Picture by: Invicta Virtuosi Racing