Leonardo Fornaroli on his F2 preparation with Invicta Racing

He was the first driver to be announced for the 2025 FIA Formula 2 grid, and Leonardo Fornaroli has wasted no time in getting up to speed as much as possible ahead of his debut.
The 2023 F3 Champion explained how he’s been beginning his preparation for next season, including how he’s balancing university alongside his F2 future.
Since his signing was announced in September following his title triumph at Monza, Fornaroli says he’s already been to the UK to the team’s workshop for an introductory visit.
“I went to the workshop already, began to work a little bit with the team before the last two rounds. I’ll be over there a bit more to start to understand how the team likes to work and stuff like that.
“The workshop is nice, it’s not super big but all the essential things are there – two cars and the offices where the engineers are working.”
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It’s not just the collaboration with the team that he’s started on. Physical preparation is key with the step up in performance from the F3 car to the F2 one.
With faster cornering speeds and longer races, Fornaroli has been in the gym starting to ramp up his fitness levels in the break between the end of the F3 campaign and the next time he gets behind the wheel of a car.
Then there’s the work he’s doing at university that takes on more emphasis as he balances work for 2025 alongside his academic exploits.
“I’m spending a lot of time in the gym to prepare myself as much as possible for next year. Also, because I have some more free time now, I can dedicate more time to university and try to make some progress there, even if it’s not easy.
“But now I have more time, I’m trying to do more with my time and doing better there is important.”
While the Italian driver won’t be at the wheel of an Invicta car for some time, he explains why the building of a working relationship is so important ahead of time.
The benefits to learning about the team and inversely, the team learning about him will only serve both parties well when it comes time to begin 2025 work in earnest following the season finale at Yas Marina.
It’s something he feels led to his success in 2023 with Trident in F3.
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“I can’t wait to start work with the engineers properly in the simulator and to try and start adapting to work with them. Also the post-season test, I can’t wait to try the new car and start properly working with the team.
“It’s super important to build up a relationship with the team ahead of next year. Trident is like a second family now and I worked with my engineer for two years. It was like a father and son relationship.
“There was no pressure from one put on the other, we worked in a super nice way, and I think that was the most important thing. That allowed me to deliver the best that I could. You need to have good feedback between each other and to be clear in order to understand the situation and solve every problem.”
Fornaroli also has friend Gabriel Bortoleto currently driving for Invicta and that has factored into his prep for next season.
He says he’s had discussions with the current F2 Drivers’ Championship leader about how the team works and his thoughts on the Norfolk-based squad.
It all factors into his preparation ahead of next year, but before he gets that far, post-season testing will be the first time he’s sat in the Invicta F2 car.
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Even ahead of that though, Fornaroli says he’s eager to follow along in Lusail and Yas Marina from the sidelines in order to further his understanding of how the team operates on the ground across race weekend.
“I’ve spoken with him, and he’s said the team is super nice and they welcome you. I could end up working with his engineer and he’s said he’s a super nice guy. So now I can’t wait to start working with them.
“I hope to be in Qatar and Abu Dhabi because I want to do at least one or two races with the team on the ground, just to watch for myself and understand how they work and communicate.
“How they speak on the radio and how the drivers explain their feedback, stuff like that is important to learn.”