Leonardo Fornaroli disappointingly reflected on Sunday’s feature race result for Invicta Racing at the Bahrain GP. The Italian driver was hopeful to convert his maiden F2 pole position into a race win, after years of struggling for victory in F3 and F2. While he did not come home with the trophy, Leonardo Fornaroli is leading the Championship driver standings with 26 points, ahead of rivals Alexander Dunne and Luke Browning with 25 points each.
“You know, of course, a podium is still nice, but I really wanted this win, you know.
“It’s [been] three years I’m trying to take a win in F3 and F2, but for some reason, it’s just really difficult.”
Though the young driver performed to the best of his abilities, his Invicta Racing machine lacked pace in comparison to the front drivers, he said while speaking to media after the race, including PitDebrief.
“Today I gave my best, but we were lacking some pace compared to Alex, so when I saw that I tried to just focus on myself and give absolutely everything still try to finish P3.”
Nevertheless, Fornaroli rejoiced about the points he gained for his team in the Bahrain GP F2 Feature Race.
“At the end we managed to do it so still good points and I will try to enjoy more even if it’s not P1.”
A tough fight in the final laps
The Invicta Racing rookie driver exposed his frustration regarding his tyre management. Fitted with hard tyres in the second stint of the race, Fornaroli struggled to find pace. He blamed this on having damaged his rear tyres in pursuit of Victor Martins in P2. On reflection, Fornaroli believes that he could have done a better job at his tyre management, especially as he had known that Martins was on older tyres.
“So, I think I could have done a better job with the hards because on the radio they told me that Victor [Martins] had slightly older tyres than me, so I was pushing a lot to try to catch him while Pepe [Martí] behind me was managing better.”
Losing pace to Martí, the Italian was surprised to keep the position in the last three laps’ fight with the Campos Racing driver.
“When I started to fight with Victor [Martins], I didn’t treat very well my rear tyres so in the last three laps Pepe [Martí] was just quicker than me and we started the last lap that he was very close still don’t know how I managed to keep him behind.”
Despite not converting his pole position, the 20-year-old driver remained pleased with his podium on Sunday.
“It was a very good fight, so, yeah, happy finish on the podium.”
Racing conditions favourable for overtakes in Bahrain
The specific conditions of the Sakhir track, with its two DRS zones and abrasive tarmac made for more overtaking opportunities, explained Fornaroli, in agreement with his colleagues Dunne and Browning.
“Mirroring what these two guys said, of course, with two DRS zones followed by two big breaking zones and a tarmac where you can play a lot with strategy and tyre management makes it easier to overtake.”
A close championship is expected
As it stands, Leonardo Fornaroli is leading the F2 Championship driver standings. He emphasised how much consistency is key to winning a championship title, as he has done in Formula 3. While consistently bringing points throughout the season, Fornaroli succeeded in winning the F3 Championship last year, despite no race wins.
“As I said so many times, yes,” said the Italian when asked if he planned to adopt the same approach for his rookie F2 season, “Because it’s the key in now in the fitness series championship with the level that there is today so I will just I will try to copy and paste last year.”
For the Italian driver, many of the pilots stand a chance as championship contenders, he explained in his answer to a question by Pit Debrief.
“I think a lot of drivers can contend [for] a good championship result this year because you can play with so many things in this championship that, as I said before, so many so many drivers can contend [for] the win”.
Looking ahead to the Jeddah GP, Fornaroli expects this weekend to be a “great challenge” as the track is very different compared to the Sakhir one. With no prior experience in Formula 2 on the Jeddah Corniche circuit, Fornaroli referred himself to Invicta Racing’s positive past performances on the track. Despite the difficulty, he hopes to have a positive round ahead.
“It’s going to be a great challenge because it’s a very difficult track. Quali will be really important, and races are going to be tricky as well. But last year, Invicta they were looking good there, so [I] hope it will be a great weekend and looking forward to it.”
