Leonardo Fornaroli: The Formula 3 Champion Who Never Won a Race and His Rise to McLaren

Leonardo Fornaroli is an Italian racing driver who became the FIA Formula 3 champion in 2024 without winning a single race, and the Formula 2 champion in 2025 in his rookie season. He now serves as a reserve driver for McLaren in Formula One. His career is built on consistency, which he showed from karting through Formula 4 and Formula Regional to the top of the feeder series.

Who is Leonardo Fornaroli?

Fornaroli was born on 3 December 2004 in Piacenza, Italy. He began competitive kart racing at about the age of ten. On his eighteenth birthday he was confirmed for Trident's 2023 Formula 3 line-up.

He moved through karting, Italian F4 and Formula Regional before Formula 3. He most recently raced in the FIA Formula 2 Championship for Invicta Racing before the McLaren role.

Consistency first: no race wins in the 2024 F3 title, then a Formula 2 championship in his rookie season.

How did Fornaroli come up through karting?

Fornaroli started in karting in his native Italy and first won the Mini Academy class of the Championkart championship in 2016. He moved up to the X30 Junior class the following year, and finished as runner-up in the 2017 X30 Challenge Italy.

In 2018 he placed third in the Italian Karting Championship, and he also began racing full-time across Europe in the WSK Super Master Series. His 2019 karting season was his strongest. Making his OK class debut, he was among the leaders in the WSK Euro Series and placed third in the Andrea Margutti Trophy.

At the end of 2019 he was among five young talents chosen for the Supercorso Federale at Vallelunga, a selection programme run by ACI Sport and the Ferrari Driver Academy.

How did Fornaroli fare in Formula 4?

Fornaroli made his single-seater debut in the 2020 Italian F4 Championship with Iron Lynx, a sportscar team that had extended its programme to open-wheelers. He finished fourth on his first outing at Misano Across 20 races he recorded eight top-five finishes, one of them a podium at Monza.

He was ninth in the standings that year on 108 points. His performances earned another invitation to the Supercorso Federale at the end of 2020, alongside Formula 4 rivals and karting drivers.

In 2021 he stayed with Iron Lynx, partnering Maya Weug and Pietro Armanni. He took his first F4 victory from his first pole position at Misano, followed by two further podiums there, and for a time he looked like the only real threat to eventual champion Oliver Bearman.

His closest teammate, Pietro Armanni, finished 23 places and 172 points behind him in the standings.

His second pole came at the Red Bull Ring, and he added more podiums at the Red Bull Ring and Mugello. The Monza finale did not go to plan: a ninth place, a retirement and a non-start dropped him to fifth in the standings, behind Tim Tramnitz, Kirill Smal and Sebastian Montoya.

He also made two guest appearances in the ADAC Formula 4 Championship with the same team. His best result there was third in the second race in Austria.

What happened in Formula Regional in 2022?

In 2022 Fornaroli moved up to Formula Regional. He first did a partial campaign in the Asian Championship with Hitech Grand Prix, where he qualified fourth and finished fifth in one race.

For the main season he moved to Trident in Europe, alongside Tramnitz and Roman Bilinski. He scored points in fifteen of the twenty races and finished eighth overall. That made him the best-placed rookie, and he was well ahead of both of his teammates.

His best finish of the season was fourth in the first race at the Hungaroring. The consistent scoring carried him to the Formula Regional European rookie title that year.

Did Fornaroli win the FIA Formula 3 title?

Yes. He won the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship with Trident in his second season in the category, by a single point from Gabriele Mini. He was the first champion in the history of FIA F3 or its predecessor GP3 who did not win a race during the season.

His F3 debut year in 2023 was steady rather than spectacular. He began with eighth in Bahrain before a puncture ruined the feature race, then took fourth in Melbourne. A second place in the Monaco sprint brought his first podium, and a third in the Barcelona sprint followed.

At Silverstone he took his maiden pole position, forming a Trident one-two ahead of Oliver Goethe. He finished the 2023 season eleventh with 69 points, three podiums and that pole.

Later that season he qualified in the top three at both Hungaroring and Spa-Francorchamps, but he earned only four points from those two rounds. An eighth place in the Monza sprint rounded off his year.

The 2024 campaign was more productive. He was second from pole at Melbourne, took podiums at Imola, Barcelona, Budapest and Spa, and went into the final round at Monza as the leader. He took a second pole there, but lost the lead on the opening lap of the feature race to Alex Dunne.

At Imola a sudden loss of power cost him the race lead, and he had to fight back from fifth to third in the feature race.

On the last lap Fornaroli made a late move around Christian Mansell at the final corner to claim third place without contact. That was enough to take the title, because Mini was later disqualified for incorrect tyre pressures and Fornaroli inherited second. He never retired from a race during the season, though he failed to score points in two of them.

Did Fornaroli win the 2025 Formula 2 title?

He did. Days after winning the F3 title, he announced a step up to Formula 2 with Invicta Racing for 2025, and he admitted he would balance university studies with his rookie campaign.

The season began with second in the sprint in Melbourne, and he took his maiden pole at Bahrain before a third in the feature. A fourth place at Jeddah followed, then points at Imola and a second place in the Monaco feature, where he missed a pit window under a safety car.

Barcelona was a frustrating round. He scored only two points in the sprint, took a stop-go penalty for a starting infringement in the feature, and then retired with a loose wheel. In Austria he took a second pole, but a multi-car collision on the final lap of the sprint ended his race. In the feature he led early, lost positions in the pit cycle and recovered to third, before being promoted to second when Alex Dunne was disqualified.

Fornaroli's breakthrough came in Silverstone. Starting tenth, which put him on reverse pole for the sprint, he held the lead against Kush Maini at the start and won, his first single-seater victory in four years. A sprint win at Spa followed, and a fifth in a wet feature race then put him top of the standings.

He won his first feature race at the Hungaroring, despite a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. He led the championship by 17 points at the summer break, and he added a sprint win and a fifth place at Monza.

The title was settled in Qatar. He inherited pole after a penalty for Oliver Goethe, finished second in the feature race and clinched the championship with a round to spare. He became the fifth champion in the F2 era to win the F3 and F2 titles in consecutive years.

The season finale at Yas Marina was his only non-scoring weekend of the year. He qualified third, but a safety car compromised his alternative strategy in the feature race.

His season ended with four wins, nine podiums and three poles, and Invicta Racing secured back-to-back team titles. He also took the Anthoine Hubert Award as the top rookie.

Formula Scout ranked him as the best driver in junior formulae throughout 2025.

Has Fornaroli driven in Formula E or Formula One?

In 2025 he made a Formula E debut during the Berlin rookie test at Tempelhof Airport with Jaguar TCS Racing. After winning the F2 title, McLaren signed him to its driver development programme.

A month later the team named him its reserve driver for the 2026 season, with Pato O'Ward sharing the role. The first Formula One run came in March, when he tested the McLaren MCL60 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. He returned to the car at Silverstone and the Circuit of the Americas in the following months.

The following week he drove the MCL60 again at Monza, before testing for Haas at Jerez.

He made his first Friday free practice appearance with McLaren at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, finishing fifth, six tenths behind teammate Oscar Piastri. He then drove for Haas at Jerez, tested the VF-25 over two days, and made a second FP1 outing with McLaren at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Leonardo Fornaroli career summary