Leonardo Fornaroli
Fornaroli driving theDallara F2 2024 during the2025 Spielberg Formula 2 round
Born	(2004-12-03)3 December 2004 (age 20) Piacenza, Italy
Nationality	Italian
FIA Formula 2 Championship career
Debut season	2024
Current team	Invicta Racing
Car number	1
Former teams	Rodin Motorsport
Starts	21
Wins	4
Podiums	8
Poles	2
Fastest laps	1
Best finish	29th in2024
Previous series
2023–2024 2022 2022 2020–2021 2020–2021	FIA Formula 3 FR European FR Asian Italian F4 ADAC F4
Championship titles
2024	FIA Formula 3

Leonardo "Leo"Fornaroli (Italian pronunciation:[leoˈnardofoɾnaˈrɔːli]; born 3 December 2004) is an Italianracing driver who competes in theFIA Formula 2 Championship forInvicta Racing.

Fornaroli won the2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship in his second year withTrident, and was the first champion in the sport's history to not win a single race in both his championship-winning campaign and his entire Formula 3 career. He is also the2022 Formula Regional European rookie champion.

Fornaroli begankarting competitively in his native Italy around the age of ten, first winning the Mini Academy class of the Championkart championship in 2016 before moving up to X30 Junior the following year.^[1] He came runner-up in the 2017 X30 Challenge Italy, in a season that also included entry to internationalIAME events, but found more success in 2018, when he was third in the Italian Karting Championship and made his full-time European debut in theWSK Super Master Series.^[2] Fornaroli's final year in karting would prove to be his best, as he was a front-runner in the 2019WSK Euro Series on hisOK debut and finished 3rd in the prestigious Trofeo Andrea Margutti.^[3][4] At the end of the year, he was invited to participate in the 16th edition of the annual Supercorso Federale event atVallelunga, as one of five young karting talents selected byACI Sport and theFerrari Driver Academy.^[5][6]

Having tested aFormula 4 car for the first time at the Supercorso Federale, 2020 would see Fornaroli make his debut in theItalian F4 Championship, driving for sportscar racing teamIron Lynx, which extended its program to single-seaters.^[7][8] He repaid the faith straightaway, taking a solid fourth-place finish on debut atMisano.^[9] He would go on to score eight top-five finishes from 20 races, including a podium atMonza, and finished ninth in the overall standings on 108 points.^[10] At the end of the year, as an award for his performances, Fornaroli was again invited toACI Sport's Supercorso Federale, together with F4 rivalsGabriele Minì,Francesco Pizzi,Andrea Rosso and four karting drivers.^[11]

In 2021 Fornaroli remained inthe series with Iron Lynx, partnering new Ferrari Driver Academy recruitMaya Weug and Pietro Armanni. He was the highest-placed driver in the 2020 standings to return.^[12] Consistency would once again prove to be his biggest asset, as he was in the points in every race he finished. Two very strong weekends at Misano, where he clinched his first F4 victory from his first pole before scoring two further podiums,^[13] andImola would initially see Fornaroli as the only real threat for eventual championOliver Bearman.^[14] He would however lose out shortly after, despite a second pole and more podiums at theRed Bull Ring andMugello, and reached the season finale atMonza in third position, as part of a four-way fight for second.^[15] The weekend did not go to plan for him, as he faced a lowly ninth position, a retirement and a DNS that eventually dropped him to fifth in the standings, behind runner-upTim Tramnitz andPrema's Kirill Smal andSebastián Montoya. Fornaroli's closest teammate, Armanni, finished 23 places and 172 points behind him.^[16]

Fornaroli also took part in theADAC Formula 4 with the team as a guest driver for the first two rounds.^[17] In those two rounds he competed in, he scored a high of third in the second race inAustria.^[18]

In 2022 Fornaroli made the step up toFormula Regional, first doing a partial campaign in theAsian Championship forHitech Grand Prix, with a fourth-place qualifying result and a fifth-place finish as highlights,^[19] before returning toEurope for the main season with new teamTrident, alongside F4 rival Tramnitz andRoman Bilinski.^[20][21] Consistency would prove to be the Italian's biggest trait, as he went on to score points in 15 of the 20 races on his and his team's debut season. He finished 8th in the overall standings, as the best-placed rookie and well ahead of both of his teammates. His best finish was a fourth place in race one at theHungaroring.^[22][23]

At the end of September 2022, Fornaroli partook in theFIA Formula 3 post-season test withTrident, partneringOliver Goethe and FRECA rivalGabriel Bortoleto on all three days.^[24][25][26] On 3 December 2022, on his 18th birthday, it was announced that Fornaroli would be part of the team's2023 line-up alongside Bortoleto and Goethe.^[27] He started his season with eighth inBahrain, but was a victim of puncture in the feature race.^[28] He would prove his worth inMelbourne, where he qualified and finished fourth in the feature race.^[29] Fornaroli took his first podium with second inMonaco during the sprint race after holding offGrégoire Saucy.^[30] He followed it up with a third place during theBarcelona sprint race.^[31] He was on the hunt for more points in the feature race, but was pushed off-track byLuke Browning on the opening lap.^[32]

Fornaroli took his maiden pole position inSilverstone, forming a Trident 1-2 ahead of teammateOliver Goethe.^[33][34] In the feature race, he would get bested by Goethe and fall to second place, but nevertheless grabbed a huge haul of points.^[35] He would qualify in the top 3 in bothHungary andSpa-Francorchamps, but would only earn four points from the two rounds.^[36][37] After an eighth place during the sprint race inMonza, Fornaroli ranked 11th in the standings with 69 points, amassing three podiums and a pole position that year.^[38]

Fornaroli andTrident continued their relationship together for the2024 season.^[39] A podium inBahrain came before a second place from pole atMelbourne, where Fornaroli lost the lead toDino Beganovic at the midway point.^[40][41] TheImola feature race yielded another podium, though the Italian had to fight back to third from fifth after losing the race lead due to a sudden loss of power.^[42] More points came throughout the next four events, with a highlight being third place atBarcelona; Fornaroli was fourth overall going into the final three rounds of the season.^[43][44] Fornaroli remained consistent atBudapest andSpa, where he paired up respective points finishes in the sprint races with third-place finishes on both Sundays.^[45][46]

With these results, Fornaroli went into the season finale atMonza as the championship leader, sitting one point ahead ofGabriele Minì.^[47] His weekend started in perfect fashion, as he took his second pole position of the year, though the championship remained close following a scrappy race from both Fornaroli and Minì on Saturday.^[48][49] On the opening lap of the feature race Fornaroli lost the lead toAlex Dunne and would soon find himself fighting for the top five positions. WhilstSami Meguetounif was able to clear his competitors for an eventual victory, Fornaroli would battle Minì andChristian Mansell until the penultimate lap, where his Italian title rival moved into second place; with Fornaroli in fourth and behind Mansell this would mean a title for Minì. In a last attempt on the final lap, Fornaroli threw his car down the inside of Mansell at the final corner, claiming third place without making contact and crossing the line to narrowly win the title.^[50][51] Minì was later disqualified for incorrect tyre pressures, meaning that Fornaroli inherited second.^[52] With this, Fornaroli became the first ever champion of FIA F3 or its predecessor GP3 to not win a race during the season, claiming the championship through his consistency and clean driving — he did not retire from any race during the season, only failing to score points in two races.^[53]

In November 2024, Fornaroli announced that he would make hisFormula 2 debut early for theYas Marina round withRodin Motorsport in place ofZane Maloney, as the Barbadian has clashingFormula E commitments.^[54]

Just days after Fornaroli clinched the2024 FIA Formula 3 title, he announced that he would step up toFormula 2 withInvicta Racing for 2025.^[55]

Fornaroli made hisFormula E debut during theBerlin rookie test at theTempelhof Airport Street Circuit withJaguar TCS Racing.^[56] Fornaroli joined Jaguar Racing to become their test driver for that season.

* Season still in progress.

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

^† As Fornaroli was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate points for the fastest lap of the top ten finishers)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

* Season still in progress.

• Leonardo Fornaroli career summary at DriverDB.com

• Living people
• 2004 births
• Italian racing drivers
• Italian F4 Championship drivers
• ADAC Formula 4 drivers
• Formula Regional European Championship drivers
• Formula Regional Asian Championship drivers
• Hitech Grand Prix drivers
• Trident Racing drivers
• FIA Formula 3 Championship drivers
• Iron Lynx drivers
• Sportspeople from Piacenza
• Virtuosi Racing drivers
• FIA Formula 2 Championship drivers
• Rodin Motorsport drivers
• 21st-century Italian sportsmen

• CS1 Italian-language sources (it)
• CS1 French-language sources (fr)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from October 2021
• Articles with hCards
• Pages with Italian IPA