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Zak Brown has made clear that Leonardo Fornaroli has done enough in his early McLaren running to be viewed as a serious Formula 1 prospect, describing the Italian as “definitely worthy of being in F1”.
Fornaroli, McLaren’s reserve driver, has built momentum rapidly since winning the Formula 2 championship last year. He joined the team’s Driver Development Programme in December and was later confirmed as part of McLaren’s 2026 reserve structure, sharing duties with Pato O’Ward.
His most visible opportunity came at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, where he made his FP1 debut in place of Lando Norris. Across 22 laps, the 21-year-old placed fifth on the timesheets — a result that gave McLaren another useful reference point as it evaluates his readiness for the next step.
Fornaroli’s recent programme has not been limited to McLaren. In the days after Barcelona, he also drove Haas’ 2025 challenger, the VF-25, during a Testing of Previous Cars run at Jerez. He shared the outing with Haas reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa, with the American team stating that the programme gives it “the capacity to test and appraise drivers”.
Asked during the British Grand Prix weekend whether there were “real possibilities” for Fornaroli to join Kimi Antonelli as the second Italian racer on the grid, Brown gave a direct endorsement.
“Yeah, I think there are,” Brown said. “He's a great talent. He’s been doing some testing with us, and so hopefully he’ll secure an F1 seat. I think he’s definitely worthy of being in F1.”
That backing is significant because McLaren has seen Fornaroli in both development and live-session environments. For a young driver chasing a full-time seat, that combination of structured testing and FP1 exposure is exactly where reputations are sharpened.
Fornaroli’s prospects sit against a broader McLaren driver conversation. Recent speculation has centred on reports that Max Verstappen’s management held informal discussions to explore opportunities with the Woking-based team. That follows wider intrigue around McLaren’s current line-up, with Oscar Piastri also recently addressing the noise around Verstappen links in his own response to McLaren contract speculation.
Brown, however, underlined that McLaren remains satisfied with Norris and Piastri, both of whom hold “multi-year” deals.
“They’re rumours,” Brown joked. “I usually don’t talk about my dinners, but last night I had dinner with Nigel Mansell, which was really cool. He’s won this race a bunch.”
He added: “I’m very happy with my two racing drivers, Lando and Oscar. I think anytime a name like Max is thrown around, people get pretty excited – a four-time World Champion – but [I'm] very happy with our driver line-up.”
For now, McLaren’s race seats appear settled. But Brown’s comments leave little doubt that Fornaroli has strengthened his case as one of the team’s most credible young F1 candidates.
He’s a software engineer with a deep passion for Formula 1 and motorsport. He co-founded Formula Live Pulse to make live telemetry and race insights accessible, visual, and easy to follow.