Not just Kimi Antonelli: McLaren brings another Italian to the track, his prospects

While Andrea Kimi Antonelli enjoys the leadership of the Formula 1 world championship standings and hopes to continue his string of five consecutive victories, this weekend there will be another Italian driver to keep him company on the Montmelò track. On the occasion of the first free practice session leading up to the Spanish Grand Prix, in fact, McLaren will leave Lando Norris in the pits to give Leonardo Fornaroli his first taste of the top formula. Another crystal-clear tricolor talent, who hopes to retrace the footsteps of his young compatriot.

Fornaroli, after all, already boasts a respectable pedigree and track record, which earned him the attention of McLaren to the point of the decision to put him under contract. A Piacentino born in 2004 (he is therefore slightly older than Antonelli), he won the Formula 3 world championship in 2024 and the Formula 2 world championship the following year. “I have worked for a long time for this, and I am incredibly grateful to the team for the opportunity. It will be the first time ever for me in an official Formula 1 session,” he stressed.

On the track with the number 67, Fornaroli will take to the track together with Antonelli, giving rise to a situation that was not news in the past, but has become rare over time: two Italian drivers entered in the same Formula 1 session. Thanks to the explosion of Mercedes talent, it had happened back in 2025 in Mexico (Ferrari launched Antonio Fuoco in FP1) after years of oblivion. Antonio Giovinazzi was alone in his time in Sauber and Alfa Romeo, otherwise one has to go back to 2011. At that time Vitantonio Liuzzi was still driving HRT, and in Sepang Lotus sent Davide Valsecchi to the track in free practice. The Lombardy driver moreover never got to debut in a full Formula 1 weekend, on a par with Raffaele Marciello (in Sauber in 2015), Enrico Toccacelo (Minardi 2005) and even Matteo Bobbi, now a television face but who in 2003 disputed free practice at Imola precisely for the Faenza-based team. The fate of the latter, however, is precisely what Fornaroli hopes to avoid in the coming years.

The path that led the Piacentine to the gates of Formula 1 was as quick as it was convincing. Fornaroli debuted in Formula 3 in 2023 and already the following year he won the title with the Trident team, in a rather unique way: without winning a single race, but thanks to an impressive consistency of performance, with two second places and five third places. In Formula 2, however, he immediately raised the bar even higher, becoming champion in his first full year in the category with the Invicta Racing team, thanks to four wins, four second places and one third place. Before that rainbow epilogue, he had also flexed his muscles at Monza on the Italian Grand Prix weekend, winning race-1 ahead of Arvid Lindblad and Joshua Dürksen. It is worth mentioning that, before him, only Giorgio Pantano in 2008 and Davide Valsecchi in 2012 had managed to win the Formula 2 title under the Italian flag.

Fornaroli’s resume convinced McLaren, which has included him in its Driver Development Program starting in early 2026, giving him the role of reserve driver to be shared with Mexican Pato O’Ward. “We selected a group of nine drivers, and each of them is incredibly talented,” said Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Chief Business Affairs Officer of the Woking-based stable. “Having Leonardo Fornaroli as a reserve driver for our team is wonderful. Our nursery is very solid, we are very curious to find out what progress our young drivers will make this season. All in the knowledge that we are training them for big championships like Formula 1, IndyCar or WEC.” Fornaroli, for his part, had responded enthusiastically, “I am delighted to have been chosen for such an important role. This step is really important for the progress of my career, and I look forward to contributing to the success of such a winning team.”

In the background, meanwhile, Antonelli’s star continues to shine, as he chases a sixth consecutive victory in Barcelona. A milestone that would bring him into an exclusive club with the likes of Gilles Villeneuve, John Surtees and Jochen Rindt, all of whom are stationary at six career wins, as are teammate George Russell and Sergio Perez. The pressure on Russell is enormous: with 68 points behind his teammate, the Briton knows that another bad weekend could mean de facto surrender in the title race. Former driver David Coulthard put it bluntly: “It’s very simple, if he doesn’t beat Kimi in Barcelona it’s over, no world championship. He has to prove he can get a pole position in Barcelona and he has to beat Kimi. Now he has the fastest car on the grid, he has a chance to win the World Championship. And someone is teaching him a hard lesson.”

In this context, Fornaroli’s presence in free practice for the Spanish Grand Prix takes on a symbolic value that goes beyond simply managing McLaren’s youth program. The Italy of motorsport presents itself in Barcelona with two faces: the already established and dominant one of Antonelli, and the one still seeking the definitive leap in quality of Fornaroli. Two generations of a movement that, after years of drought, seems to have found a fertile vein again. The hope, for tricolor fans, is that the Piacentino can turn this first official appearance into the springboard toward a starring career in the top series, avoiding the fate of those who, before him, stopped at the gates of the great circus without ever managing to open them fully.