Italian
The climb
Matteo De Palo is an Italian single-seater driver, born in Rome, who made his FIA Formula 3 debut in 2026 with Trident aged 18. A member of the McLaren Driver Development Programme, he reached the category off the back of a strong run through the regional ranks. He began karting in 2016, collecting podiums in the WSK Super Master Series and the FIA Karting Academy Trophy across the 60 Mini, OK-Junior and OK classes.
Junior single-seaters
De Palo debuted in cars in 2023 in the Spanish Formula 4 Championship with Campos Racing, taking a race win, multiple podiums and a pole on his way to fifth overall. He then moved to the Formula Regional European Championship (FREC), using 2024 as a learning year (17th, with a difficult Macau Grand Prix that ended in disqualification). The breakthrough came in 2025 with Trident: four wins, seven further podiums and three poles — including a standout victory at Barcelona — carried him to runner-up in the championship behind teammate Freddie Slater. That title fight earned him his place on McLaren's development roster, and his first event as a McLaren junior was the Macau Grand Prix, where he finished eighth.
Formula 3
That form earned him a graduation to FIA Formula 3 with Trident for 2026, a team that had taken the drivers' title in each of the three preceding seasons with Gabriel Bortoleto, Leonardo Fornaroli and Rafael Câmara. He races car #6 in a strong Trident line-up that includes Slater.
2026 season
The rookie campaign has been a baptism of fire. After a tough Melbourne opener, his Barcelona Sprint unravelled with a clutch of penalties — a drive-through commuted to a 20-second penalty for an incorrect grid position, plus a five-second false-start sanction and a further ten seconds for leaving the track — that dropped him to 25th. The pace that made him a regional title contender is yet to translate into F3 results, but the raw material and McLaren backing mark him as one to watch. The season is ongoing and no title is decided.