13/08/2025 16:45
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.
