Ricci hails ‘deserving’ champion Fornaroli after ‘crazy’ Monza title showdown

Trident Team Manager Giacomo Ricci has nothing but praise for 2024 Drivers’ Champion Leonardo Fornaroli after his last gasp overtake sealed his title victory in the Monza Feature Race.
Fornaroli started from pole before losing the lead to MP Motorsport’s Alex Dunne in the early stages only to run through the gravel at the Ascari chicane, pushing him further down to P5.
However, Fornaroli made his way back up to P2 before his title rival Gabriele Minì and ART Grand Prix driver Christian Mansell overtook him on the penultimate lap, dropping him to fourth.
READ MORE: Thoughts of a Champion – Leonardo Fornaroli

In that moment, the title looked to be heading Minì’s way only for Fornaroli to dive down the inside of Mansell at Parabolica to move back into P3, therefore sealing the Championship.
“Well, it’s crazy,” reflected Ricci. “I am slowly realising now how many emotions I went through on the last lap. Again, we were not going to win the Championship and ahead of Ascari I remembered that I opened the radio and I said, ‘Leo it’s all in for the last corner, all in, go for it’ and then he did something special.
“It was not looking from the outside that he was going to try the overtake, so he stayed fully to the left and at the last moment he decided to dive in and do this perfect move.
“Also being able to stop the car, take the line which was really tricky at the end of the race when the tyre has also fully degraded. So, you are almost sliding on four wheels, and he already had two big lockups, so it was really difficult at that moment, but he did it.
“I am extremely proud of it, it was a crazy emotion when he crossed the line. I can only compare to the experience of Verstappen with Red Bull in Abu Dhabi, the emotion that we had on the pit walk was very similar, it was crazy.”
Ricci continued to praise Fornaroli but this time for his temperament, giving how calm he remained over the course of the weekend. He shared an example of the 19-year-old’s reaction when things didn’t go well on Friday.
“I think the key point was that he had been always very consistent and also when things were not going in his direction, he always found a way to turn things around,” said Ricci.
FEATURE RACE: Meguetounif wins as Fornaroli seals title with final-corner pass

“For example, we started this weekend in Monza very badly. We had a problem in Free Practice, but he was always very calm. We didn’t run in Free Practice that much, we had a small amount of laps, but he was calm, he was with his family, with his engineers and with his people.
“Then in Qualifying he did a great job, put the car on pole and the Sprint Race was brilliant. Despite the penalty that he took, he recovered and scored some points as well as today of course.”
This was Fornaroli’s second Formula 3 season but his third in Trident colours given that he raced for the team in the 2022 Formula Regional European Championship. Over that time, Ricci has seen him go from strength to strength.
“Since the first year he has improved massively,” he said. “I still remember in the first official post-season test we did in Jerez, even physically he was struggling. He has been quick since the first time we tested him, very fast but he was really struggling physically.
“But from that moment on he always worked hard. When he saw that he had a weakness or things that were not at the top level he always worked hard, always asked for more, spent more time with the engineers, with us, with everyone.
“The biggest improvement for me from the first season compared to the second one was the race pace and tyre management because this year he has been very strong on this while last year, I have to say on the tyre management he was a little bit poor.
“But this year he learned to manage the tyres, he was more in the game with this and that’s why he has been so consistent and so competitive.”
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Fornaroli ends the year with impressive statistics which include seven podiums – the most of any driver – and two Pole Positions – joint most with Luke Browning. He does however have win, but Ricci does not think that tells the full story.
“Absolutely he is a deserving champion,” said Ricci. “For me, especially on the single lap in Qualifying he has been the quickest by far because he was always up there.
“In Imola he was going to win that race, unfortunately he was really unlucky, the car switched off for a moment but even in that moment he was really sharp to switch on the car, and not cry on the radio and move forward on the problem.
“He finished third, so he had a couple of chances to win but he was also unlucky on that occasion, but he never gave up. So, despite the fact that he did not win a race, he fully deserved to win the Championship. To be honest, for the overtake he did with the pressure on the last lap, he deserved the championship for that.”