{"id":322357,"date":"2025-12-02T08:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T08:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/322357\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T08:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T08:32:09","slug":"f2-champion-leonardo-fornaroli-joins-mclaren-as-test-and-development-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/322357\/","title":{"rendered":"F2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli joins McLaren as test and development driver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Formula 2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli has been signed to McLaren’s driver development programme, and will occupy a role as the Formula 1 team’s test and development driver.<\/p>\n

Fornaroli secured back-to-back F3 and F2 titles, following in the footsteps of Gabriel Bortoleto<\/a> – another former McLaren<\/a> development prospect – by winning the F3 title with Trident in 2024, before taking the F2 title with Invicta this year.<\/p>\n

The Italian forged his path to a successful F2 championship bid without backing from an F1 team’s junior programme, and got his title over the line in Qatar after finishing second in the Sunday feature race.<\/p>\n

His achievements in junior categories, characterised by a consistent approach, have now brought him to the attention of McLaren. The Woking squad had space in its junior roster after the mid-season departure of Alex Dunne from its development squad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There is a possibility that Fornaroli could be drafted into the team’s line-up for FP1 in Abu Dhabi, as Oscar Piastri<\/a> has to give up his seat one more time this year ahead of the championship finale. The team’s pick for the opening Abu Dhabi session is currently unconfirmed.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m incredibly proud to be joining the McLaren Driver Development Programme after another successful year on track,” said Fornaroli.<\/p>\n

\"Leonardo <\/p>\n

Leonardo Fornaroli, Invicta Racing, Arvid Lindblad, Campos Racing, Dino Beganovic, Hitech TGR<\/p>\n

Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd<\/p>\n

“Winning both the FIA Formula 3 and Formula 2 titles has been an important step in my journey, and I\u2019m motivated to take the next step in my development through the programme as I work toward my ultimate goal of racing at the highest level.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m very grateful to McLaren for this opportunity, and to everyone who has supported me throughout my career so far. I can\u2019t wait to get started and work closely with the rest of the team.”<\/p>\n

McLaren has also added Richard Verschoor, one of Fornaroli’s championship rivals, to its development programme. The Dutchman has been a frequent fixture in F2 across the past few years, and was briefly part of Red Bull’s junior team during his days racing in the Formula Renault Eurocup.<\/p>\n

Verschoor confirmed earlier in the year that the 2025 season would be his last in F2, having raced in the category since 2021.<\/p>\n

Spanish karting champion Christian Costoya also joins McLaren’s junior programme, who will race at the F4 Middle East Championship’s season opener at Yas Marina in January.<\/p>\n

“It is a key priority that we continue to develop our talent pipeline to provide options for all of our expanding racing teams,” said McLaren’s driver development chief Alessandro Alunni Bravi.<\/p>\n

“We look forward to working closely with all our drivers in 2026 as they continue their individual development at various stages of their career with the support of the programme through a wide range of testing and progression opportunities across all of our racing series.”<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula 2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli has been signed to McLaren’s driver development programme, and will occupy a role…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,176831,181449,85106,813,816,913,167718,85],"class_list":["post-322357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-f1-qatar-grand-prix-2025","tag-f2-champion-leonardo-fornaroli-joins-mclaren-as-test-and-development-driver","tag-fia-f2","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-mclaren","tag-qatar-gp","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}