‘We were missing some pace’ - Minì says he and MP can still improve despite Championship lead

Gabriele Minì is coming off a double podium weekend in Montreal, and currently leads the Drivers’ Championship, but says he and MP Motorsport can still find more performance going forward.

Following a maiden Formula 2 victory in Miami, Minì qualified P10 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, and while he led the first part of the Sprint Race from pole, he wound up in P2.

In the Feature, the Italian produced a stellar drive through the field to finish in third, sealing a second podium of his Canadian weekend.

Minì now leads the Drivers’ Championship with 57 points and is the only member of the grid to have scored points in every race in 2026.

Reflecting on it all, Minì said: “It feels very good. Of course, it's always good to be at the top of the Standings, rather than not being there and trying to chase.

“But it's very early in the championship, so we need to focus on the job, and find some more pace. We got a double podium in Canada, but we were missing some pace, clearly. So we still need to work a bit and try to extend.”

Looking back at the Montreal weekend in full, the MP Motorsport driver said: “It was a really, really good weekend. I think we maximised and extracted even more than what we had, to be honest. A bit like Miami.

“We managed to start on Sprint pole and the pace was not bad, just the degradation hit us a bit hard. It's hard to compare, but we could see visually that it was hard to keep up with the others, especially with the two Rodins in the Feature.

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“But once again, we still did a very good job. We maximised what we had and we also worked, because it was two different things from one race to another. It means we are working and we just need to find the right direction.

“But in the end, as I said, even the pit stops and the things that we needed to manage, it was very nicely executed.”

Minì continued to speak highly of MP, as while it may be his first season with the Dutch team, he is already impressed by what he has seen.

“I mean, it's really different to any other teams I've been with,” he said. “It’s a different mindset and a different way of working, but once again I'm finding myself really well in this environment, people are really nice, and you know, we work well, so there is good harmony.”

The 21-year-old now heads to the European rounds leading the Standings, while MP leads Campos Racing by one point at the top of the Teams’ Title.

When asked whether he pays attention to the Championship at this stage in the season, Minì responded: "To be honest, yes, in a way. You don't think about the championship, but you think about wanting to score points in every race.

“So if you are, for example, in P4 and you have to risk a lot to get P3, sometimes it's almost better to stay back, these kinds of things.

“But of course you're not going to let people pass because of it, so it's a trade-off, you need to have a good balance of those two things.”

Looking ahead to Round 4 in Monte Carlo, Minì is returning to a track where he has had a great history, winning twice from pole in Formula 3, and also finishing P2 in last year’s Sprint Race.

Previewing the Principality action, Minì said: “I'm really excited. I can't wait to get on track, to be honest. The thing that I will always do is to focus lap by lap, especially on a street circuit.

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“You can't really take any big risks, especially on the first lap, and you have to build, not going too slow, but also at the same time, you can't afford any crashes at the beginning, early on.

“So, it's going to be key to build it up and, of course, I'm sure that the team already has some data, has a base where to start from, unlike those last two rounds. So, we'll be ready.”