Italian
Back-to-back champion
Leonardo Fornaroli, born on 3 December 2004 in Piacenza, achieved one of the rarest doubles in junior single-seater racing: he won the FIA Formula 3 Championship in 2024 and the FIA Formula 2 Championship in 2025, claiming both titles in consecutive seasons. In doing so he joined an elite list — Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Oscar Piastri and Gabriel Bortoleto — as the only drivers to win the F3 and F2 crowns back-to-back, and he became the first Italian to win the FIA Formula 2 title since the championship took its current form in 2017.
Karting and junior years
Fornaroli began competitive karting around the age of ten, winning the Mini Academy championship in 2016 and finishing on the podium of the 2019 Andrea Margutti Trophy in the OK class. He was selected for the ACI Sport and Ferrari-supported Supercorso Federale, a federal scholarship for promising Italian talent. He stepped into car racing with Italian F4, racing for Iron Lynx in 2020 and 2021, where he scored his first single-seater win and multiple podiums. In 2022 he moved to Formula Regional, contesting the European Championship with Trident and finishing eighth as the best-placed rookie, alongside a partial Formula Regional Asian campaign.
Formula 3 title with Trident
Fornaroli spent two seasons in FIA Formula 3 with Trident. After an eleventh-place rookie year in 2023, with three podiums and a pole, he returned in 2024 and won the championship through remarkable consistency. Strikingly, he took the title without winning a single race all season — the first F3 champion to manage that — instead piling up seven podiums and scoring in 18 of 20 races. His reliability while rivals faltered, including a dramatic late move at Monza, made him champion.
Rookie Formula 2 crown with Invicta
After a brief two-race F2 cameo with Rodin Motorsport at the 2024 Abu Dhabi finale, Fornaroli stepped up full-time in 2025 with Invicta Racing. He claimed the title as a rookie — the eighth driver to win the GP2/F2 championship at the first attempt — taking four wins, nine podiums and three poles, and clinching the crown with a round to spare after second place in the Qatar feature race. He was named the season's top rookie with the Anthoine Hubert Award, and helped Invicta to consecutive teams' titles.
Toward Formula 1
Following his F2 success, Fornaroli joined the McLaren driver development programme and was confirmed as a McLaren reserve driver for the 2026 Formula 1 season, marking the next step in a career built on relentless consistency.