Why a promising Italian talent is not on F1 teams’ wish lists

The Formula 2 championship is being fiercely contested this season, with only 30 points separating the top five drivers in the standings.

Exciting McLaren and Williams juniors Alex Dunne and Luke Browning are currently fifth and fourth, respectively, in the title hunt, with Dutch journeyman Richard Verschoor in third.

The MP Motorsport driver, now into his fifth season in F2, is 19 points adrift of leader Leonardo Fornaroli, with Jak Crawford sandwiched between them, only two points ahead of the 24-year-old.

This means that Fornaroli is far from certain to triumph come season's end to win back-to-back junior titles, having won the FIA Formula 3 crown last year. However, he already finds himself in a difficult position over his future plans.

If he does succeed in his quest to secure consecutive titles and become the F2 champion, he will follow in the footsteps of Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Oscar Piastri and Gabriel Bortoleto, but he will also not be allowed to return to the F1 support paddock.

That poses an issue for the young Italian, who is by no means guaranteed to attain a race seat, or even a reserve role, in F1 next year. 

That is partly because of the looming 2026 regulations changes. F1 teams are looking for experience, leaving talented youngsters on the sidelines.

Only at Red Bull is there talk of Arvid Lindblad making the step up, but at other teams, there seems to be little room for fresh talent from the current F2 crop for now.

Fornaroli, if he does win the title, would therefore bear the combined brunt of F2's rules, but also the ramifications of F1 moving into a new era of regulations.

Consequently, Fornaroli's current team, Invicta Racing, is also in a bind. At this stage of the campaign, the top teams in F2 are manoeuvring to make decisions on drivers for next season, but because it is uncertain whether Fornaroli will still be allowed to compete in the championship in 2026, it becomes difficult for Invicta to wait for the Italian's future to become clearer, as the team then runs the risk of missing out on the next talent.

Fornaroli, for his part, does not yet know whether he will win the title, and F1 teams do not seem to be in a hurry to lock down reserve drivers for next year.

The driver market has yet to fall into place, especially with Cadillac yet to secure either of its two main drivers. As a result, both Fornaroli and Invicta Racing find themselves in a sticky situation.

The question is whether there should not be an exception to the rule around F2 champions in these situations. The aforementioned rule was introduced to ensure that Formula 2 remains about talent, but it seems less effective when there is a major technical change in Formula 1.

Fornaroli faces an exciting period in the coming months, and it would be undoubtedly impressive if the 20-year-old can emulate previous back-to-back FIA F3 and F2 champions.

Perhaps Fornaroli can then follow in the footsteps of Piastri, who initially joined Alpine as a third driver. After a year, he moved on to McLaren, the team with which he is now competing for the F1 drivers' title.

Despite the fact that Fornaroli does not currently have a deal with an F1 programme, it seems to be a matter of time before he and one of the teams come to an agreement.

Given Fornaroli's strong performance over the past two years, it seems impossible that we will not see the Italian in the F1 paddock next year.

Admittedly, a reserve role is probably the highest achievable for now, but Piastri has already shown how that need not be a problem.