The F1 group has confirmed reigning F2 champion and IndyCar star as its 2026 reserve drivers.
Fornaroli was snapped up by McLaren in December after securing the F2 championship, becoming a member of its driver improvement programme. As a part of these duties the Italian will likely be its designated reserve driver for almost all of the 2026 season, supporting common racers and world champion . As a part of the deal, McLaren defined Fornaroli “would undertake an intensive testing and sim programme to assist his improvement”.
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“I’m thrilled to be moving into an prolonged function with the McLaren Mastercard Formulation 1 Staff as reserve driver as a part of the McLaren Driver Growth Programme,” stated Fornaroli. “It’s an thrilling subsequent step in my journey, and I’m wanting ahead to contributing to such a profitable, championship-winning group this season. An enormous thanks to Zak [Brown], Andrea [Stella] and Alessandro [Alunni Bravi] for this chance.”
McLaren’s IndyCar frontrunner O’Ward will complement Fornaroli so far as his IndyCar duties permit.
“I’m excited to proceed in my function as reserve driver for the McLaren Mastercard Formulation 1 Staff, alongside my main duties within the NTT IndyCar Sequence with Arrow McLaren,” the Mexican stated. “I’ve discovered an unbelievable quantity from testing and driving F1 vehicles over the previous few years, so I’m wanting ahead to this continued development and improvement.”
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Pato O’ Ward testing for McLaren in Abu Dhabi
Pato O’ Ward testing for McLaren in Abu Dhabi
Alongside Fornaroli and O’Ward, McLaren confirmed its full improvement roster for 2026 will encompass Christian Costoya, Matteo De Palo, Ella Hakkinen, , Ella Stevens, Dries Van Langendonck and .
Current signing and long-time F2 competitor Verschoor will compete within the European Le Mans Sequence with the Duqueine LMP2 squad, with a view to getting ready for McLaren’s hypercar assault in 2027.
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De Palo is McLaren’s most senior teen on its single-seater ladder in FIA F3 with Trident, whereas Belgian prodigy Van Langendonck will graduate full-time from karting to single-seaters in British F4 – with Costoya additionally set for an F3 programme all through Europe.
Lloyd and Stevens will symbolize McLaren in F1 Academy, whereas Hakkinen, the daughter of two-time world champion , will undertake an F4 testing programme forward of a projected 2027 racing programme.
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, McLaren’s chief companies affairs officer, stated: “The group is happy to substantiate its driver improvement programme line-up alongside its racing and testing programmes for 2026.
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“It’s nice for Leonardo to step up into the reserve driver function for the McLaren Mastercard Formulation 1 Staff as a part of his improvement with us, with Pato O’Ward additionally persevering with on this function. We now have chosen an extremely proficient group of 9 drivers, which reveals the well being of our expertise pipeline.
“We’re all excited to see their improvement this season as we create skilled drivers throughout all points of racing, progressing in the direction of Formulation 1, IndyCar and the group’s upcoming World Endurance Championship entry.”
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