It would be fair to say that Kimi Antonelli is one of, if not the most spoke about young talent in the world of motorsport.
The Italian, who only turned 18 last month, has had a meteoric rise through the ranks. Antonelli has won an incredible four junior titles in his career, including the Formula Regional Middle East Championship and the FRECA titles last season.
Antonelli made the step up to Formula 2 for 2024 with PREMA Racing where he has enjoyed a successful season, currently sitting sixth in the standings with 99 points and two victories.
Despite not being at the top of the field in F2, the Italian will make yet another huge leap forward as he will join Mercedes in Formula 1 next season to replace the outgoing Lewis Hamilton.
The amount of attention and conversation surrounding Antonelli is huge, but speaking on the Cameron Cc YouTube channel, F1 journalist Peter Windsor thinks there is another driver that should be talked about.
Peter Windsor lauds ‘unbelievable’ Formula 3 champion Leonardo Fornaroli
Leonardo Fornaroli became the Formula 3 champion at the final round at Monza in dramatic fashion.
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Running in fourth heading into the final corner of the final lap of the Feature Race, Fornaroli looked set to lose the title to fellow Italian Gabriele Mini, who was running second.
Heading into Parabolica, Fornaroli divebombed Christian Mansell to take third and win the championship over Mini. The 19-year-old displayed great consistency across the season, only finishing outside the points twice and scoring seven podiums.
While talking about the attention that Antonelli is receiving, Windsor lauded the ‘unbelievable’ efforts of Fornaroli and that he should be spoke about for the future.
“I’m assuming then that there’s been as much focus around Leo Fornaroli for what he did in the Formula 3 race. I mean that was absolutely unbelievable,” he said.
“It’s the last lap of the drivers’ championship, the drivers’ championship’s in the balance, and he passes Christian Mansell on the inside of the Parabolica to win the championship! Absolutely superb.
“As it happened, I don’t think he needed to do it as poor old Gabriele Mini got disqualified. He finished second but he got disqualified for tyres being under pressure.
“But what a move. And what I like about Leo, we should be talking about him, he doesn’t have any affinity with any Formula 1 team, as far as I can make out at the moment. He probably will, they’ll all probably start: ‘oh yeah, we should get this guy now.’
“And that’s probably why he’s so good and he drives so well and he’s just a lowkey guy that gets out there and races hard. I love watching Leo drive and it’s a message there. He’s not one of these ridiculous academy drivers.”
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Leonardo Fornaroli will race in Formula 2 in 2025
As the F3 season comes to a close, Fornaroli has confirmed his future after just two days following his championship win.
The Italian will make the step up to F2 in 2025 with Invicta Racing. Fornaroli expressed that it was a ‘dream come true’ to join Invicta as he embarks on a fresh challenge.
The interesting thing about Fornaroli joining Invicta is the correlation to their current driver Gabriel Bortoleto. The Brazilian won the F3 championship last season and is now currently second in the F2 standings, 10.5 points behind leader Isack Hadjar.
With Invicta being a strong outfit in the category and their success with Bortoleto, the 2024 F3 champion will be one to watch next season.