Interview
Gabriele Minì on living his dream, the importance of 2025, and PREMA Racing’s improvements
Fresh from his exploits in Formula 3 in 2024, where he lost out on the title in the final corner of the season, Gabriele Minì is doing everything he can to make 2025 a successful campaign.
So far, he has shown the potential to do so, finishing third on his Formula 2 debut for PREMA Racing at last year’s Baku Sprint Race.
In 2025, Minì has been fastest at the pre-season and in-season tests and qualified on top in Melbourne, before a three-place grid penalty for impeding dropped him to P4.
The results at the opening three rounds have not quite gone Minì’s way, but he has scored points in every race contended this year. Yet, he is 10th in the Standings with 12 points.
Ahead of the Jeddah weekend getting underway, the 20-year-old reviewed the season so far.
“So far everything is going quite well. We've just done two rounds for the moment, so there is still a long way to go.
“We have been really fast in Melbourne, struggled a bit more in Bahrain, but we are trying to bounce back.”
The journey to get to this point for Minì has come with several sacrifices, as it does for most racing drivers and for the people around them.
As he explained, even away from the track, the Italian’s free time is spent in the simulator or training, all done with an eye on improving his performance in the car.
But for Minì, there are no complaints, just gratitude, as he gets to live out his “dream.”
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“I come from karting, with my father as a mechanic, so it's never easy, but it's still very, very cool,” said Minì on his rise to Formula 2. “It seems really different from TV, really big and huge, but in the end, when you are here in the paddock you live in it in a very different way.
“It's just our everyday life, so we are kind of used to it. You don't go from karting to F2, you go to F4, Formula Regional, F3 and then F2. It's very, very cool, but of course it requires a lot of work, and a lot of sacrifice in my life.
“You have to sacrifice a lot of free time and all the things other guys our age would do. But we are not complaining about it because we are living our dream.”
That hard work did not slow down for Minì when his step-up to F2 for 2025 was confirmed last year. If anything, he levelled up, revealing that he has put on 10 kilograms of weight since the end of his Formula 3 season.
The Alpine Academy member says he changed his diet and workout regiment after setting a goal of gaining more muscle.
“The neck is much stronger, the legs are much stronger, shoulders, arms, everything is much bigger and stronger,” he said.
“It's probably the biggest step that I have done so far as a driver, when you compare it to last year and also to the previous years, during the winter.”
There has also been a lot of work done in the simulator to make sure Minì is comfortable with the car he is driving this year, because, as he explains, it is very different to anything he has driven before.
“To be honest, it's a bit of everything,” said Minì on the big differences in an F2 car. “It’s more so braking style, the throttle inputs, and also the weight. It's a really heavy car, so everything needs to be a bit smoother going into the corners, but in some areas, you can be more aggressive.
“For everyone it’s different, but it depends also on the car setup you have, which one works and which one doesn't. But the key is always to be smooth.
“I know my driving style, and how it was before, so I know how it's changed. I don't know what changes the others did, so I can just speak for myself.”
But Minì also acknowledges that the work he has done to be ready for this year is not just because of the car he has to drive, it’s because of the importance of the season.
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“I mean it's probably one of the most important years in my life,” he said. “We have to deliver if I want to achieve my dream of driving in F1. It isn't easy, it's never easy, so the only thing that I can focus on is myself, and that's what I've been doing.”
The PREMA rookie revealed he had previously spent some time in Alpine’s simulator driving the Formula 1 car and that he had been “very strong”, although he acknowledges that the real car could be much different to the sim.
But that is not where Minì’s focus is at the moment, as his attentions are placed firmly on his Formula 2 season. However, he did say what he thinks you need to do to make the step-up to F1.
“I think you have to of course be fast,” he explained. “You need to have the raw speed, and you need to also do something very special. Winning a race from somewhere really far back, doing some overtakes that are quite special, just something special.
“I don't know what it is, but you will see it when something is special, you will see it yourself. It just comes with instinct, with your skills, so you can't decide those things, but the goal is always to try to do your best.”
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Doing his best will not always look the same in terms of results for Minì. For him, maximising the package each weekend is the goal, and while that might not mean a victory in every race, it will give him and PREMA the best outcome possible.
It helps that Minì is already feeling confident in the car, demonstrated by the first Qualifying of the season in Melbourne during which he set the fastest time, before his penalty took effect.
He also expects to feel more comfortable as the year progresses, especially as his experience in the car increases with each lap he does.
On top of that, Minì feels PREMA are in a good position as they have improved their package over the winter. The 20-year-old revealed that every time they hit the track in both tests it was with a different setup, and this has given the team a better understanding of things and a good baseline for each weekend.
Overall, this means Minì is feeling confident with himself and his team as we prepare to head into the European leg of the calendar.
“In a way it's useless to think about,” said Minì on his confidence for the season. “You don't know where the others are, and you don't know where you are going to be. But we worked pretty hard through the winter, we changed quite a bit, so it's really different from last year.
“But we have also seen how things can change quickly. We went from being fastest at in-season testing to struggling a bit more in the races. But then, last year in Melbourne, they finished fourth, and this year we were really quick again.
“We will see. It's not something we can decide, it's just something that we will see for the rest of the season. But I am feeling quite confident, and I have trust in my team.”