Thoughts of a Champion - Leonardo Fornaroli

FIA Formula 2: It is now time for a very special press conference with the newly crowned FIA Formula 2 Champion, Leonardo Fornaroli from Invicta Racing. First of all Leo, congratulations, 2025 FIA Formula 2 Champion. How does that sound?

Leonardo Fornaroli: It sounds amazing. I didn’t have many expectations because it was a new car and my first time working with an English team, so it was a bit scary but their mentality since day one – I understood I made the right choice to go with them. Every day they were able to make me feel at home. We had so much fun over the season and they were able to give the right suggestions to help me improve, to make me feel better after a mistake or a bad race or moment. Also, having Roman as a teammate this year, we’ve known each other for three years, as we were together at TRIDENT, but in different categories. He has good experience in Formula 2, so I was able to learn a lot from him, and he made me improve as well. To achieve this now, it’s a massive relief, and it's a big boost of confidence, because I was able to show what I'm capable of, and also I'm quite happy about how the season went. For sure, there were some mistakes I could have avoided, some for inexperience and some were just my mistakes, but it's part of the game. The Championship is very competitive. You always have to be at the limit to score good results. So mistakes can happen, but nevertheless, I learned, was able to improve, and now to finally win this Championship, it's a massive relief. It was a dream for me to become Champion with one round to go so I could race and experience the race with a lot less pressure. But still, I will do the best I can, because the fight for the Teams’ Championship is still on. So I will push as much as I can in Abu Dhabi, and try to still improve.

FIA Formula 2: This title comes a year after you won F3 in 2024 following in the footsteps of Oscar Piastri and Gabriel Bortoleto, who also won both titles back-to-back. What does this mean to you, knowing that Oscar and Gabi are now in Formula 1?

Fornaroli: Well, it's a big emotion, knowing that I'm doing the same that the top F1 guys did like Oscar, Charles, Russell and Gabriel. To get to two Championship in a row, it's amazing. And this one feels even better than the first because it was in my first year, so just amazing.

FIA Formula 2: So far in Formula 2, you've had four wins, nine podiums and two pole positions with one round to go. What do you make of these results so far?

Fornaroli: These are amazing results. Like last year, I showed that I'm very consistent. I mean, even if there were some problems or something was not going in the right way, I was always able to finish and to score good points. I still lost some opportunities this year, but as I said before, that’s part of the game, I learned from the mistakes and, now that I’ve finally won it, I'm a bit more relaxed.

FIA Formula 2: Do you think you’re the same driver as the one that won the F3 Championship or what are the differences between that and the one you are now?

Fornaroli: Well, I think this year, compared to last year, I improved a lot in my driving because F2 isn’t like F3. You have to be a lot more careful, both in qualifying and races, especially in the races, because with a bigger car, more power, bigger tyres, it makes the tyre degradation more tricky. So at the start of the year, I spent a lot of time in the simulator with my engineer and with my driver coach. Then I studied the data lots, lots of onboards from the races of every race weekend. Today, even if I wasn't the quickest on track as Victor did an amazing race, I was able to do my own and stay basically the whole time with him. In the second stint, we couldn't catch him. To miss the win, it's a bit disappointing. I will see what we could have done better to try to improve and finish on a high next weekend.

FIA Formula 2: Alright then what’s next for our F2 Champion?

Fornaroli: I have an idea of what’s happening with my future. My focus still remains on the last round of F2 in the meantime. My manager and management are doing an amazing job, and I'm very confident for what's next. And I hope you will be able to see what will happen in few weeks time.

FIA Formula 2: Well we can’t wait. From all of us at Formula 2, a massive congratulations, Leo.