Fornaroli began karting competitively in his native Italy around the age of ten, first winning the Mini Academy class of the Championkart championship in 2016 before moving up to X30 Junior the following year.[4] He came runner-up in the 2017 X30 Challenge Italy, in a season that also included entry to international IAME events, but found more success in 2018, when he was third in the Italian Karting Championship and made his full-time European debut in the WSK Super Master Series.[5] Fornaroli's final year in karting would prove to be his best, as he was a front-runner in the 2019 WSK Euro Series on his OK debut and finished 3rd in the prestigious Trofeo Andrea Margutti.[6][7] At the end of the year, he was invited to participate in the 16th edition of the annual Supercorso Federale event at Vallelunga, as one of five young karting talents selected by ACI Sport and the Ferrari Driver Academy.[8][9]
Lower formulas
2020
Having tested a Formula 4 car for the first time at the Supercorso Federale, 2020 would see Fornaroli make his debut in the Italian F4 Championship, driving for sportscar racing team Iron Lynx, which extended its program to single-seaters.[10][11] He repaid the faith straightaway, taking a solid fourth-place finish on debut at Misano.[12] He would go on to score eight top-five finishes from 20 races, including a podium at Monza, and finished ninth in the overall standings on 108 points.[13] At the end of the year, as an award for his performances, Fornaroli was again invited to ACI Sport's Supercorso Federale, together with F4 rivals Gabriele Minì, Francesco Pizzi, Andrea Rosso and four karting drivers.[14]
In 2021 Fornaroli remained in the series with Iron Lynx, partnering new Ferrari Driver Academy recruit Maya Weug and Pietro Armanni. He was the highest-placed driver in the 2020 standings to return.[15] Consistency would once again prove to be his biggest asset, as he was in the points in every race he finished. Two very strong weekends at Misano, where he clinched his first F4 victory from his first pole before scoring two further podiums,[16] and Imola would initially see Fornaroli as the only real threat for eventual champion Oliver Bearman.[17] He would however lose out shortly after, despite a second pole and more podiums at the Red Bull Ring and Mugello, and reached the season finale at Monza in third position, as part of a four-way fight for second.[18] The weekend did not go to plan for him, as he faced a lowly ninth position, a retirement and a DNS that eventually dropped him to fifth in the standings, behind runner-up Tim Tramnitz and Prema's Kirill Smal and Sebastián Montoya. Fornaroli's closest teammate, Armanni, finished 23 places and 172 points behind him.[19]
Fornaroli also took part in the ADAC Formula 4 with the team as a guest driver for the first two rounds.[20] In those two rounds he competed in, he scored a high of third in the second race in Austria.[21]
In 2022 Fornaroli made the step up to Formula Regional, first doing a partial campaign in the Asian Championship for Hitech Grand Prix, with a fourth-place qualifying result and a fifth-place finish as highlights,[22] before returning to Europe for the main season with new team Trident, alongside F4 rival Tramnitz and Roman Bilinski.[23][24] Consistency would prove to be the Italian's biggest trait, as he went on to score points in 15 of the 20 races on his and his team's debut season. He finished 8th in the overall standings, as the best-placed rookie and well ahead of both of his teammates. His best finish was a fourth place in race one at the Hungaroring.[25][26]
At the end of September 2022, Fornaroli partook in the FIA Formula 3 post-season test with Trident, partnering Oliver Goethe and FRECA rival Gabriel Bortoleto on all three days.[27][28][29] On 3 December 2022, on his 18th birthday, it was announced that Fornaroli would be part of the team's 2023 line-up alongside Bortoleto and Goethe.[30] He started his season with eighth in Bahrain, but was a victim of puncture in the feature race.[31] He would prove his worth in Melbourne, where he qualified and finished fourth in the feature race.[32] Fornaroli took his first podium with second in Monaco during the sprint race after holding off Grégoire Saucy.[33] He followed it up with a third place during the Barcelona sprint race.[34] He was on the hunt for more points in the feature race, but was pushed off-track by Luke Browning on the opening lap.[35]
Fornaroli took his maiden pole position in Silverstone, forming a Trident 1-2 ahead of teammate Oliver Goethe.[36][37] In the feature race, he would get bested by Goethe and fall to second place, but nevertheless grabbed a huge haul of points.[38] He would qualify in the top 3 in both Hungary and Spa-Francorchamps, but would only earn four points from the two rounds.[39][40] After an eighth place during the sprint race in Monza, Fornaroli ranked 11th in the standings with 69 points, amassing three podiums and a pole position that year.[41]
2024: FIA Formula 3 Champion
Fornaroli and Trident continued their relationship together for the 2024 season.[42] A podium in Bahrain came before a second place from pole at Melbourne, where Fornaroli lost the lead to Dino Beganovic at the midway point.[43][44] The Imola feature race yielded another podium, though the Italian had to fight back to third from fifth after losing the race lead due to a sudden loss of power.[45] More points came throughout the next four events, with a highlight being third place at Barcelona; Fornaroli was fourth overall going into the final three rounds of the season.[46][47] Fornaroli remained consistent at Budapest and Spa, where he paired up respective points finishes in the sprint races with third-place finishes on both Sundays.[48][49]
With these results, Fornaroli went into the season finale at Monza as the championship leader, sitting one point ahead of Gabriele Minì.[50] His weekend started in perfect fashion, as he took his second pole position of the year, though the championship remained close following a scrappy race from both Fornaroli and Minì on Saturday.[51][52] On the opening lap of the feature race Fornaroli lost the lead to Alex Dunne and would soon find himself fighting for the top five positions. Whilst Sami Meguetounif was able to clear his competitors for an eventual victory, Fornaroli would battle Minì and Christian Mansell until the penultimate lap, where his Italian title rival moved into second place; with Fornaroli in fourth and behind Mansell this would mean a title for Minì. In a last attempt on the final lap, Fornaroli threw his car down the inside of Mansell at the final corner, claiming third place without making contact and crossing the line to narrowly win the title.[53][54] Minì was later disqualified for incorrect tyre pressures, meaning that Fornaroli inherited second.[55] With this, Fornaroli became the first ever champion of FIA F3 or its predecessor GP3 to not win a race during the season, claiming the championship through his consistency and clean driving — he did not retire from any race during the season, only failing to score points in two races.[56]
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