Gabriele Minì on title fight, life at MP Motorsport, dealing with pressure and conversations with Alpine

Gabriele Minì is shining in 2026, in a season where he knows there is pressure on him to deliver.

After nine rounds, the MP Motorsport driver is second in the Championship with 147 points – trailing leader Nikola Tsolov by 20 points.

Minì’s title challenge has been built on consistency, achieving points in 16 out of the 18 races, and when you dive deeper into the results, he has two wins and nine podiums in total – the most by any driver on the grid.

“So far I think it's been pretty good,” says Minì as he looks back on his season. “We didn't have the greatest of starts, we were really quick in Melbourne but with an issue we had to start from last, so it wasn't ideal.

“We still managed to get points but we lost a lot of points that weekend. We haven't been the quickest, but we have maximised the most out of everyone. It's been quite decent.

“Consistency is always really, really important. Of course it doesn't need to be consistently P10 otherwise you never get any points. But you need to maximise what you have to try and win championships.”

NEW LIFE AT MP MOTORSPORT

Minì returned for a second full campaign in F2 with a new team, but more importantly in a new environment, having never raced for MP.

Despite that, the 21-year-old was confident of success given the Dutch outfit’s strong record in Formula 2 – finishing inside the top five in the Teams’ Standings in three of the last four seasons.

But the Alpine Academy member also acknowledged that there was pressure on him to achieve good results after a tough rookie campaign where he placed 13th in the Championship.

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“In a way, you have a a fresh start so that’s always nice,” says the Italian. “But of course you also have pressure because the first year didn't go so well.

“So you want to try and make it up or at least show that you were not the problem. There are two sides, a bit of excitement and pressure.

“But we knew which teams were the quickest in F2 and we knew MP could fight at the front. So I was very excited coming into pre-season.”

DEALING WITH A TOUGH 2025 CAMPAIGN

Minì made the step up to F2 last year after losing the 2024 Formula 3 title at the final corner of the season in Monza.

The MP driver was keen to bounce back with a strong debut campaign in 2025 but he found positive results hard to come by – scoring just three podiums.

It was a frustrating season for the Italian, especially as it had started well. He scored pole position at Round 1 in Melbourne – although a three-place grid penalty dropped him down the order – and achieved five consecutive points finishes to start the year.

“To be honest it was very painful,” says Minì. “You always work hard for everything, and especially last year after losing F3 in the last corner, you work as hard as you possibly can and everything starts so well and after a bit it just starts going really bad.

“Sometimes we were just really unlucky, and things were going really bad. Even when we could have fought for the front, maybe there was an issue. There were so many things that people don't know.

“For sure it wasn't a perfect season from also my side. But it’s frustrating because once you start going into a loop of everything going bad, you want to try and make it up but that makes it easier to do mistakes. It's a snowball effect.”

CONVERSATIONS WITH ALPINE

To the Italian’s credit, he did not carry the frustrations from one race into the next. Minì talked about “switching on and off” between races and also relying on his debut result at Baku in 2024 – where he finished third in the Sprint – as a reminder that he was quick enough for F2.

Alpine also continued to support Minì through the tough times, knowing what he was capable of when things go to plan.

“It's always hard to be honest because it was not like I was driving bad or making any mistakes, we were just slow,” he says recalling his conversations with Alpine.

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“Even for them it's not easy to say, ‘Okay you have to do this, you have to do that.’ But we always worked hard, focused on the basics like good braking and race craft. We looked at things we could have done differently, like tyre saving.”

So what about this season? How do Alpine feel about Minì’s performances?

“Of course they're quite happy and satisfied,” he reveals. “I will also have the possibility to test with them, so that's a good thing.

“They are putting me more and more into F1 work, so I am in the simulator which is very useful for me and it's a big opportunity. In the end F2 is the closest category to F1, so if you do well, in theory you should have a shot at it.

“It's not 100% guaranteed because there are contracts to respect, but you have a bigger chance than if you are doing bad. But so far, I think they are happy. As I said, we haven't been the quickest, but we have been very consistent, so I'm quite happy about the job done so far.

“I know that both me and my team are working very hard to try and find extra pace, and to be as consistent as possible with everything.”

THE COMPETITION AT ALPINE AND PRESSURE TO MAKE IT

Minì’s view on how he can make it to F1 is clear: he has to win! But while many will see the other Alpine coloured liveries on the grid – belonging to Alexander Dunne and Kush Maini – as his only competition for a spot, he does not see it that way.

The Palermo-native views everybody in the paddock as his rival for a place at the next level. But there’s no pressure, as he is simply living in a reality he has been preparing for since he started racing.

“In the end you go to F2 because you want to go to F1, so you have to win it,” he says. “So every driver here could all be a part of Alpine, but in the end, I still need to win. If I am the only driver that Alpine has and I have a bad year in F2, I'm not going to go.

“So I've been preparing for this moment for a long time. There has not been a year where I could have afforded to be bad. Every year you need to show the pace to be able to afford the next year.

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“It's not me who decides where to go, it's my management, Alpine and everyone else, so I always have to show that I am worthy of having a shot. If I did a bad first year in F3, it would have been my last race ever. I would have not had the second year.

“As I said, I have been preparing for this my whole life, so I am not feeling any pressure. I know that the worst thing to have in life is probably regrets, so I am just going to do this year as calm as I can and do the best I can.

“I want to arrive at the end of the year and say, ‘Ok, I could have not done anything better’ and that's when I will be happy with myself.”