McLaren has signed new System 2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli to a check and improvement function, and has additionally added F2 race-winner Richard Verschoor to its younger driver program.
Fornaroli adopted within the footsteps of Gabriel Bortoleto, Oscar Piastri, George Russell and Charles Leclerc in successful the System 3 (or GP3) and System 2 championships back-to-back as a rookie, securing his newest title in Qatar on Sunday. The Italian was not affiliated with a System 1 staff beforehand, however RACER understands McLaren fought of curiosity from numerous rivals to safe his signature.
“I’m extremely proud to be becoming a member of the McLaren Driver Improvement Program after one other profitable 12 months on monitor,” mentioned Fornaroli. “Profitable each the FIA System 3 and System 2 titles has been an essential step in my journey, and I’m motivated to take the following step in my improvement by way of this system as I work towards my final aim of racing on the highest stage.
“I’m very grateful to McLaren for this chance, and to everybody who has supported me all through my profession thus far. I can’t wait to get began and work intently with the remainder of the staff.”
Richard Verschoor has additionally been snapped up by McLaren. Dom Gibbons/Getty Pictures)
“I’m delighted to be a part of the McLaren Driver Improvement Program,” Verschoor mentioned. “It’s a particular second, and I’m grateful for McLaren’s assist in permitting me to proceed my improvement throughout the program. I’m excited to get going and work arduous with the staff within the coming months.”
Verschoor has been in F2 for the previous 5 seasons however now joins an F1 program for the second time, having been at Purple Bull in 2017. Alongside each F2 graduates, Spanish karting expertise Christian Costoya has additionally been signed forward of his transfer as much as single-seaters.
“McLaren Racing are delighted to welcome two of System 2’s present main drivers on this 12 months’s Champion Leonardo Fornaroli and former championship contender and fellow front-runner Richard Verschoor, in addition to confirmed karting champion, Christian Costoya, to the McLaren Racing Driver Improvement Program,” mentioned McLaren’s chief enterprise affairs officer Alessandro Alunni Bravi.
“All three proficient drivers have proven nice race craft with a number of wins this season, alongside numerous spectacular performances of their respective championships. By welcoming Christian to this system alongside long-standing member, Dries Van Langendonck, we now even have two of essentially the most promising drivers popping out of karting.
“It’s a key precedence that we proceed to develop our expertise pipeline to offer choices for all of our increasing racing groups. We stay up for working intently with all our drivers in 2026 as they proceed their particular person improvement at numerous phases of their profession with the assist of this system by way of a variety of testing and development alternatives throughout all of our racing sequence.”
