McLaren hidden gem driver tipped for long-awaited F1 chance

McLaren currently houses a “hidden gem” of a driver, an “anomaly” within the exclusive club of drivers to win the Formula 2 title as a rookie.

That driver is Leonardo Fornaroli, who, unlike Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Oscar Piastri and Gabriel Bortoleto before him, is yet to find his way onto the Formula 1 grid. Fornaroli’s ex-Invicta Racing team boss James Robinson does not know what more Fornaroli needs to prove and says the Italian “unquestionably” deserves a seat on the F1 2027 grid.

Leonardo Fornaroli backed for F1 after rookie F2 title comparison

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Fornaroli, the reigning Formula 2 champion, won the Formula 3 and Formula 2 titles in back-to-back seasons. He won the F2 crown at the first attempt, with Invicta Racing, and did so without any affiliation to a Formula 1 team.

It was enough to alert McLaren, though Fornaroli was forced to settle for a reserve driver role, with no spot on the F1 2026 grid opening up.

Speaking exclusively with PlanetF1.com, Robinson was asked whether he believes Fornaroli deserves a future place on the F1 grid.

“Unquestionably so,” Robinson confirmed.

“I mean, who are the guys who have won Formula 2 as a rookie. They are Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Oscar Piastri, Gabriel Bortoleto and Leonardo Fornaroli. They are all exceptional drivers, and Leo is the anomaly, that he’s not in Formula 1 right now.

“But of course, Oscar also had to sit on the sidelines for a year after he won the F2 championship, and I’d be very disappointed if Leo wasn’t in a Formula 1 seat for next year.

“Just look at the roll of honour there of drivers who have won F2 in their rookie season. Those are the greatest drivers of their generation, if you think of Russell, Piastri, Leclerc, and of course, Gabi as well, albeit still very much in the early stages of his F1 career.

“I’m very much hoping, expectantly, that he’ll be in an F1 seat next year.”

Fornaroli raised the bar as an Invicta driver.

Robinson added: “He has a unique ability to execute under pressure more than any driver I’ve ever seen.

“We looked at the end of the year at our checklist of things that we expect from a driver, and he was the only driver we’ve ever had who checked every single box.

“Qualified in the top 10 at every single race last year, and that was really the secret to success. Even at the tracks where he struggled a little bit, like Silverstone, he still managed to ensure he had a reverse grid pole, nailed the sprint race, won from pole position, and then was able to make up more places in the feature race and bring home a solid points finish.

“And that’s the consistency that you need to win the championship. But not only win the championship, he won the championship a round early, with two races to spare!

“I don’t see what more evidence people need to see that Leonardo Fornaroli is a real hidden gem.

“I think a hidden gem is the right word, because he wasn’t affiliated with an F1 team at all until the end of last year.

“Gabi was at least with McLaren after his F3 championship.

“Really, it does surprise me, but I certainly won’t be surprised if we see him in F1 next season.”

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Fornaroli was Invicta’s second driver to win the F2 title as a rookie in as many years.

In 2024, it was the above-mentioned Gabriel Bortoleto who pulled off that accomplishment.

Bortoleto was signed by Sauber off the back of his F2 title win, and after an impressive rookie season, has remained for the team’s Audi F1 transition.

“Gabi is a really special talent,” said Robinson.

“He has a unique ability to galvanise the team around him. He was universally loved in this team. He’s got a phenomenal sense of humour. He’s just a great human being.

“I would say he will go on and achieve great things in whatever he does in life.

“I’m sure he’s going to have an incredible career as a Formula 1 driver. I very much hope and expect that he will win many, many grands prix, and hopefully become Formula 1 world champion.

“But whatever he does after motorsport, he’ll be really successful at, because he’s really, really smart and he’s got a really high level of general intelligence, really high street smarts.

“He has this ability, that we talk about a lot in motorsport, that he races the car, seemingly using less of his brain than other guys. He’s able to think about things whilst he’s on track that are outside of the immediate focus of driving a racing car. His mental capacity whilst racing is phenomenally high.

“But I think the team also deserve a huge amount of credit for the work that was done with Gabi in 2024.

“When we came out of Melbourne, he had only scored a handful of points. He was a long way down in the championship. The team did a great job in extrapolating the potential out of him, so that by the time we got to Imola, he was on pole there, and he then just started racking up podium after podium, points after points, and he didn’t really look back from that point onwards.

“Always qualified in the top 10. Had two phenomenal feature race victories in Austria, but most famously in Monza.

“He’s an outstanding talent, and I think him and the team deserve a huge amount of credit for what they achieved in 2024.”

Skip forward to 2026, and Invicta has its next F3 champion in the house, that being Ferrari-backed Rafael Camara. He joins the experienced and impressive Joshua Durksen in Invicta’s F2 2026 line-up.

Camara sits third in the Drivers’ standings after Miami, just one point behind leader Nikola Tsolov.

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