Notebooks and no-nonsense: How "very interesting" Fornaroli impressed Stella in Barcelona

Colton Herta's first FP1 appearance for Cadillac at Barcelona soaked up most of the attention on the Friday morning, as his quest to transition from IndyCar to Formula 1 continues in earnest.

Switching codes is a much more arduous feat today, even when compared to the days of Jacques Villeneuve and Juan Pablo Montoya either side of the millennium. Herta's endeavours have necessitated a layover in F2 and in a Cadillac reserve role to collect the required FIA superlicence points to reach F1, as he currently misses six points to be eligible for a drive next season.

His appearance was thus something of a novelty inclusion, at least when measured against the usual suspects of Ferrari reserve Dino Beganovic, Mercedes' Frederik Vesti, Red Bull's Ayumu Iwasa, Williams' Luke Browning (who missed out on any running with an electrical problem), and the continued sharing of Paul Aron between Alpine and Audi. These five all appeared in FP1 sessions last year and are all seasoned deputies at this point, used to being called upon to deliver set run-plans before the reward of being let off the leash on a set of softs. 

But there was another new face to the FP1 roster in Leonardo Fornaroli: reigning F2 champion, no less, and a recently minted member of McLaren's reserve squad taking Lando Norris' seat for the session. The Italian's route through the junior categories had been a curious one, spent largely under the radar at the lower levels but, as he rose through the ranks and made his way onto the F1 undercard, his results began to demand attention.

The more demanding the series, the better Fornaroli became. 

He beat Gabriele Mini to the F3 title in 2024, notably without winning a single race, to earn a step up to F2 with James Robinson's Invicta squad. It was coincidentally the same path that Gabriel Bortoleto took on the road to F1, assuming Fornaroli could also complete the back-to-back and win the intermediate-tier championship on the F1 ladder. He did so with apparent ease over his competition, only failing to score in four races and demonstrating a remarkable turn of consistency. Between June's feature race at the Red Bull Ring and November's equivalent affair in Qatar, Fornaroli did not finish any lower than sixth, with four wins accrued through that period.

Around that time last year, this writer interviewed both Fornaroli and Robinson. Fornaroli was straight to business, a little shy but more than willing to discuss his growth in the world of motorsport. He knew the value of consistency in winning titles, particularly in F2 where many drivers have demonstrated impressive peaks interspersed among more regular showings of anonymity, and vowed to be in the points every weekend. His was a workmanlike approach dedicated to repeatability, albeit lacking the bombast that draws the eye from the talent magpies at the higher levels. 

Fornaroli won last year's F2 championship with relentless consistency

Photo by: James Sutton / Formula 1 / Formula Motorsport Ltd via Getty Images

Thus, it was abundantly clear that Robinson thought that Fornaroli should have been snapped up by an F1 junior operation by that point, and probably wanted to drum up a bit of interest on his driver's behalf. But this writer agreed with that assessment, knowing that some junior operations still occasionally cling to individual results rather than longer periods of consistency and success. A "Moneyball signing", Robinson contended; it was hard not to disagree. 

Once Fornaroli had secured the F2 title, McLaren rewarded his endeavour with a role on its driver development programme, headed up by former Sauber chief Alessandro Alunni Bravi and ex-racer Warren Hughes. A year of simulation work and TPC testing beckoned, with the intent of polishing the Piacenza-born driver's skills for a future FP1 outing. He got his opportunity over the weekend at Barcelona and took to it like a duck to water, ending FP1 fifth in the timesheets and just over 0.6s adrift from Oscar Piastri. This was his first day with the MCL40, and he was immediately on the pace. 

Crucially, Fornaroli impressed the right people: Andrea Stella fizzed with compliments when the subject of McLaren's latest young charger cropped up in his Saturday evening media session. A meticulous presence himself, Stella found a kindred spirit in watching Fornaroli scribble away in a notebook when preparing with the engineers for practice.

"We did a lot of aero work on the car starting the session and that was the most important thing. I've done everything cleanly, I brought the car home, did a clean session and so yeah, I'm very happy about the work done with the team" Leonardo Fornaroli

"It's a very deserved opportunity. We have worked with Leonardo for some months now. We have appreciated massively his attitude as a person and as a driver," Stella enthused.

"He is actually a very interesting character. He looks timid, but by far he is the most proactive driver in asking the engineers, he goes around with his notebook, takes several notes and as soon as he has an idea he shares it. So he's a very interesting character and then when he gets in a car, being in the simulator, being it in the TPC testing car or here in a free practice one session, he is fast. 

"We gave Leonardo some duties in the first part of his FP1 session because he needed to do some work for us on the rakes. It's actually the rakes to try and understand the behaviour of the front wing.

"It was difficult because he needed to go in constant speed while everyone else was at normal speed, and he did it with a great level of professionalism and great level of precision in terms of these procedures. There is a lot of work on the steering wheel to achieve the right speed and stay away from traffic. And then when we gave him a couple of sets, one used, one new, and he was fast."

Fornaroli finished his first-ever FP1 session just 0.65s down on Piastri

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

Oh, and that 0.6-second gap to Piastri? Stella says that the gap should have been even smaller.

"You should take away two tenths of a second," he added, "because he loses two tenths of a second down the straight because with this power unit you need to get some familiarity. As soon as you have to manage some traffic, the state of charge of the battery is not maximum and you're going to be punished down the straight. So very happy with the aptitude, the speed, the consistency."

Our analysis of the data, with reference to Piastri's best effort from the session, corroborates this. Fornaroli opened the lap about 20kph down on the Australian, which duly contributed to the two-tenth arrears that Stella noted on Saturday. Neither of the McLaren drivers were flat through Turn 3 either, but Piastri was able to modulate the throttle more adeptly through the long-radius right hander, ensuring that he was able to carry a bit more speed on the exit and into the Turn 4 braking zone. 

It was much of a muchness between them until the exit of Turn 7; Piastri carried a fraction more speed despite braking sooner as Fornaroli went a fraction deeper into the tricky left-into-right-hand-kink. This put Fornaroli on the back foot on the run to Turn 9 - Campsa - where he also lifted a bit too much, prompting him to dial in more throttle mid-corner to compensate. 

By the final sector, Fornaroli had started to get into his stride. There was a little confidence lift through the penultimate corner and a little brake before the final turn, but it allowed him to get back on the throttle a lot sooner than Piastri to minimise the time loss. There were mistakes, sure, but very much mistakes that would be easy to overcome with a reset, a few coaching tips from the engineers, and another go. Get the deployment right, nail the lift-point for Campsa, and be braver on the throttle through Turn 3, and we're talking about hundredths - not tenths. 

Even so, Fornaroli was keen to play his performance down. "The pure lap time wasn't our goal. The goal was to provide all the data that the team needed," he noted, barely diverging from his industrious approach.

Fornaroli chews the fat with Norris' engineer Will Joseph, who looked after the Italian in FP1

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

"We did a lot of aero work on the car starting the session and that was the most important thing. I've done everything cleanly, I brought the car home, did a clean session and so yeah, I'm very happy about the work done with the team.

"[TPC running] helped a lot. Yes, the car behaves different compared to the TPC car, but still, the jump from F2 is very quick. So to have some TPC days before the first session, it was a massive help. And also I'm doing a lot of teamwork with the 2026 car, so I knew already what to expect."

What's next for Fornaroli? For the time being, he'll continue in his reserve role at McLaren, taking part in more TPC days and FP1 sessions - and no doubt filling up a few more notebooks in that time. Some have suggested that he might be looking at McLaren's IndyCar or World Endurance Championship projects, and his unflappable consistency would be an incredible asset in the latter series. 

And, not to be dismissive of either championship, but there's an exclusivity associated with F1 - especially these days, where drivers are much less likely to try to buy their way in. Stella believes that Fornaroli has the class and the ability to be one of the 22 drivers on the current grid. McLaren might not be able to facilitate that, with Piastri and Norris sewn up for the foreseeable - but should either leave, Stella might be more inclined to promote his countryman rather than chase a big-money signing. If not, McLaren will at least try to help him find his way onto the grid for 2027. 

"Leonardo is certainly an asset for Formula 1 in the future," he concluded. "We want him to drive, certainly in the future he may drive for McLaren Racing but I think he should, and we'll work together with Leonardo, explore possibilities in Formula 1."

Fornaroli's efforts in practice impressed McLaren boss Stella

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images