Zak Brown has expressed his confidence that McLaren reserve driver Leonardo Fornaroli is \u201cdefinitely worthy of being in F1\u201d, with the team CEO hopeful that the youngster can secure a seat on the grid.<\/p>\n
Off the back of winning the Formula 2 championship last year, Fornaroli signed to McLaren\u2019s Driver Development Programme<\/a> in December, while it was later confirmed that he would share reserve driver duties at the squad for 2026 alongside Pato O\u2019Ward.<\/p>\n The Italian has since participated in testing for the team, as well as making his FP1 debut in place of Lando Norris<\/a> at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, where he recorded 22 laps and placed a respectable fifth on the timesheets.<\/p>\n In the days that followed, the 21-year-old also got behind the wheel of Haas<\/a>\u2019 2025 challenger, the VF-25, during a Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) run<\/a> at the Jerez Circuit in Spain alongside the American outfit\u2019s reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa, with the team stating that they have \u201cthe capacity to test and appraise drivers\u201d through the programme.<\/p>\n As such, Brown<\/a> was asked during the British Grand Prix weekend whether there were \u201creal possibilities\u201d for Fornaroli to join Kimi Antonelli<\/a> as the second Italian racer on the grid.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I think there are,\u201d Brown responded. \u201cHe’s a great talent. He\u2019s been doing some testing with us, and so hopefully he\u2019ll secure an F1 seat.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he\u2019s definitely worthy of being in F1.\u201d<\/p>\n In terms of McLaren<\/a>\u2019s driver line-up going forward, much recent speculation has centred around reports that Max Verstappen<\/a>\u2019s management have held informal discussions to explore opportunities at the Woking-based outfit.<\/p>\n However, with Norris and Oscar Piastri<\/a> both holding \u2018multi-year\u2019 deals<\/a> at the team, Brown reiterated that the squad are content with their current pairing.<\/p>\n