2024 FIA F3 champion, Leonardo Fornaroli has hailed his title as “one of the best days” in his career.
Fornaroli entered the season finale as championship leader and managed to take pole, only for a four-place grid penalty for unnecessary slow driving to drop him to 16th on the grid for the Sprint.
The 19 year-old Italian eventually recovered to eighth with the fastest lap, and extended his title lead over compatriot, Gabriele Mini to five points ahead of the title decider.
Reflecting on the weekend, Fornaroli believed that his “pace was very strong”, despite needing to mount “… a good recovery” to put the title in his hands going into the season finale.
The Sprint however saw Fornaroli finish just one point behind Luke Browning after getting the bonus point for fastest lap, but he was glad to avoid the “disaster” risk of finishing outside the top ten given the risk of starting mid-pack.
“Of course I knew that I had to recover to gain some points, but I also kept in mind that I had to finish the race, otherwise it would have been a disaster.
“Our pace was very strong at the start and middle of the race, but in the end I suffered a lot with the rear degradation and unfortunately, I lost two positions.”
Fornaroli however was forced to endure a rollercoaster of a season finale as he lost the lead to Dunne into the Parabolica on the opening lap, before a mistake dropped him to fifth on Lap 4 following a safety car restart.
“The mess started with my mistake into Ascari. In the lap before during the Safety Car, I saw that the corner was full of dust but I wasn’t expecting it to be so slippery. So I did my normal line, completely lost the back end and lost three positions.”
Fornaroli subsequently found himself in a race-long scrap with compatriot and title rival, Mini, whilst Christian Mansell pushed the pair to the limits on tyre life.
“I knew I had to recover as many positions as possible so I pushed a lot on the tyres to try and overtake everyone. In the end I struggled a lot with the tyres. I also had some flatspots at the front to make it even worse.”
Come the final lap, Mini found himself second ahead of Mansell and Fornaroli going into the very last corner and in title-winning position, until Fornaroli lunged his way through on the inside of Mansell to snatch third and the title.
He however was promoted to second post-race after Mini was disqualified for infringement of tyre pressure rules.
Reflecting upon the tension of that final lap after he had lost two positions on the penultimate lap, Fornaroli explained that he went for the all or nothing approach after advice from Trident on his team radio.
“When Gabriele and Mansell passed me I asked my engineer if I was still Champion. He said no, absolutely you have to overtake Mansell in front of you.
“It was hard I have to say because they were faster than me in that part of the race because my tyres were completely gone. But luckily they started to fight a bit on the last lap.
“I tried a move at the second chicane, but it wasn’t enough. I locked up the fronts because I had no grip. I knew Ascari was basically the last chance but I couldn’t get it.
“So going into the last corner, I said ok, it’s all in. I cannot accept to lose the title in the last two laps of the season.
“So I managed to send it on the inside. He was quite fair I have to say, to leave a good gap between me and him. It was fair, correct and I managed to take a podium and the title in the last corner.”
Fornaroli proceeded to admit that he was relieved when he reached the checkered flag, as he became the first driver to win a title in any modern FIA junior category without winning one race in his championship-winning season.
“When I crossed the finish line, all the pressure I had during the weekend and during the season went down, and I’m the happiest man in the world. It’s one of the best days of my life.”
The 19 year-old though was critical of his own performance despite claiming the title though his consistency, with just two non top-ten finishes all season.
“Today, despite my race not being perfect – I have to say I’m not fully happy with my performance, we took all the points I gained on him and Luke in the previous rounds and managed to win even if I didn’t finish in front of him.”
On the reality of becoming champion with no race wins, Fornaroli has vowed to analyse his performances in hope of claiming wins if he secures a move into F2 next season, which is expected to be confirmed in the coming weeks.
“Of course, now I care less, but once the adrenaline has gone down, I’ll start to analyse that maybe the race today wasn’t perfect, and I will look at it all later to try to improve for the future and to take the first win in these categories.”
A total of six drivers were in contention for the title going into the final round following Oliver Goethe’s withdrawal, after he was handed a shock graduation to F2 to replace F1-bound Franco Colapinto at MP Motorsport.
Fornaroli nevertheless praised his title rivals for pushing him all the way throughout the season, especially Mini and Browning who were his main competitors in the season finale.
“Yeah, they didn’t make my life easy. They were both very fast this weekend – Luke unfortunately got blocked on his fastest lap in Qualifying I think, but yesterday he was flying, and he passed me on the last lap with a very good move.
“Gabriele almost overtook me as well, but I managed to defend well. I knew today was going to be hard. At the start, I was pretty confident behind Alex but then after the mistake, I said now I have to recover otherwise I’m going to destroy everything.
“Gabriele did a very good race, unfortunately Luke had contact in the first lap that I saw on the big screen while I was driving. That was extremely unlucky because he’s been a very good driver and he’s demonstrated his speed this year.
“With Gabriele, I had a very good fight today. He was going to beat me until the last corner but then I managed to overtake Christian in front of me.
“Of course, it’s not the result I was hoping for but anyway, he did an amazing Championship and an amazing race today.”
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