Another young Italian will make his Formula 1 debut, this time with McLaren. The British team has announced, in fact, that Leonardo Fornaroli will take to the track on Friday for the first free practice session in Barcelona in place of Lando Norris.
From F3 and F2 champion to the McLaren driver program
A big leap for the Italian driver, born 21 years ago in Piacenza, considered one of the most promising talents of his generation. Raised in karting, he became Formula 3 champion in 2024 and Formula 2 champion in 2025: he is one of the very few drivers to have won F3 and F2 consecutively. In December he joined the McLaren Driver Development Program as a development and test driver. In this context, in recent months he has carried out some tests with the 2023 single-seater in Barcelona, Silverstone and Austin.
«My first official Formula 1 session»
«I am very excited to drive the MCL40 this weekend in the free practice session 1 of Barcelona-Catalunya – said Fornaroli – It will be a great opportunity to help the team in the preparations and to work on the program scheduled for Friday. This will be a very important mission for me because it will be my first official Formula 1 session. It’s something I’ve been working on for a long time, so I’m very excited.”