Gabriele Minì says ‘another step’ needed in title fight after Silverstone

It was a tricky weekend at Silverstone for Gabriele Minì as he finally relinquished his hold on the lead of the Drivers’ Championship leaving Round 7.

The Italian lost out to title rival Nikola Tsolov on the final lap of the Sprint Race, and had to execute a race of damage limitation on Sunday as the Bulgarian took another win to transform the title fight.

Leaving Silverstone, the MP Motorsport driver highlighted the positives of his weekend but admitted that another level needed to be found to mount a fightback next time out.

“It was an OK weekend to be honest. We saved it by staying in the top 10 in Qualifying. We knew that the pace was never really strong, starting already from FP and in quali.

“In the race yesterday, after checking data, we saw that we had some issues with the rear brakes. So I couldn't stop the car as I wanted on the last lap. We lost the win, but clearly the pace was not strong enough to win, especially in clean air.

“But we still held on to second. And today, once again, we did a good race, I think, overall we executed it well, we did nice overtakes, a good pit stop, and it was just good enough for P6. Starting from P10 is not bad, for sure, when you're on pace. But clearly, we need to really step up our game if we want to fight for wins consistently.”

Minì’s consistency has been a key factor for him in the 2026 season so far. Eight podium results have been a great foundation his title bid has been built on, but he is lacking a victory since his win in Miami.

While he says he’s confident that he’s driving at a strong level this year, the recent form of Tsolov means the Alpine Academy driver is looking to find performance with the team moving forward in order to compete for wins more regularly, rather than rely on consistent point-scoring results.

He also highlighted that despite a tough weekend at Silverstone, he was able to achieve a points gain on his closest pursuers in the Standings, with Rafael Câmara and Alexander Dunne falling further behind the Italian.

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“I feel like I'm driving quite well. Not a lot of mistakes, to be honest, taking the little opportunities when we can, which is, once again, what we really want and what we really need. The only thing is that, clearly, apart from maybe two weekends, we have not been the quickest. And that's quite clear.

“We have always been the second quickest on so many occasions. For example, in Austria, or even yesterday, we were quick, but there was always someone that was a bit quicker.

“It doesn't help, for sure, for race victories. But we have consistently scored points, even this weekend. We were not the quickest, but overall, I think we ended up gaining on both Alex and Rafa.

“Of course, we lost out to Nikola, because he got two wins. But, now it's time to step up our game if we really want to fight for the championship.”

With a one-week break between Silverstone and Spa, focus now switches onto finding another step in performance. Minì says he and MP will carry confidence into the weekend and already know where the improvements can be made from Silverstone.

“Spa was probably one of our strongest weekends. We had an issue at the pitstop, losing 10 seconds and losing out on a possible podium or win. I'm not sure what the team did last year, but I think they were always in the top ten though, which is good.

“We know where we can improve even on this weekend and they will work, knowing what happened last year. It's never been a bad track also for me. So, we'll just see how it goes.”