McLaren quietly clocked up two useful days at Monza this week, putting its 2023 MCL60 back on track for a TPC outing that doubled as a timely refresh for two very different names on its extended driver roster.
Leonardo Fornaroli was the headline from a career-trajectory point of view. The 21-year-old ran the car on Tuesday, completing 36 laps before immediately pivoting into an even busier schedule: a two-day test with Haas at Jerez on Wednesday and Thursday, where he’s due to share duties with Haas reserve Ryo Hirakawa. Three straight days in broadly representative F1 machinery, split across two teams and two circuits, is the kind of workload that tells you a driver is being seriously stress-tested — not just given a courtesy outing.
McLaren stayed on at the “Temple of Speed” for Wednesday and handed the MCL60 to Will Stevens for further running, logging another 50 laps. For Stevens, it’s less about opening doors than keeping them open. Now in his ninth season as a test and development driver with the team, he remains a useful known quantity: reliable, technically switched on, and happy to turn laps to order. He arrived at Monza fresh from finishing fourth at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Cadillac, underscoring the odd modern reality of a driver being both a high-level endurance racer and an F1 development hand within the same fortnight.
Stevens said the team used the day to work through variations in set-up — the sort of practical reference-building that TPC days are designed for.
“A good final day of testing today in Monza with the TPC Team,” he said. “I’ve made the most of the run plan that was set out for me. We tried a few different set ups, which are all helpful reference points for me.
“Driving an F1 car is always a great opportunity, so thank you to the team for getting me in the MCL60 again.”
For McLaren, the bigger picture isn’t lap count for lap count’s sake, but keeping its driver pipeline “warm” with real-world mileage — especially when a young prospect is trying to translate junior-series momentum into something the paddock actually values: repeatable feedback, clean execution, and the ability to adapt quickly.
Fornaroli has been on a steep upward curve since joining McLaren’s junior programme last year, arriving with the kind of CV that immediately gets people’s attention in this sport — back-to-back titles in the junior categories, and among the small group to win Formula 3 and Formula 2 championships in consecutive seasons. That pedigree buys you a seat at the table. It doesn’t buy you a race drive.
What makes this week interesting is the shape of the opportunity. A one-off run can be written off as PR or a reward; three days of work, split between McLaren and Haas, looks more like paddock due diligence. McLaren is giving him meaningful mileage in a known package, while Haas is offering exposure to a different environment and different working methods — and, inevitably, a different set of eyes judging the same inputs.
The timing is neat, too. Fornaroli had already tasted modern F1 again with an FP1 appearance last week, and this Monza-to-Jerez stretch keeps him in the groove: similar operational tempo, similar physical demands, and none of the “back to the simulator” comedown that can make young drivers feel like they’re standing still.
There’s a subtle message in this as well: McLaren is still investing in Stevens’ utility while accelerating Fornaroli’s readiness. Teams rarely say it out loud, but TPC programmes are as much about building dependable options as they are about developing raw prospects. In an era where the grid is tight, contracts are complicated, and the next vacancy can appear suddenly, being able to place a prepared driver into a real car — and have them immediately look like they belong — is worth serious effort.
For Fornaroli, the job across these three days is straightforward to describe and brutally hard to nail: be fast enough to be taken seriously, disciplined enough not to bend anything, and clear enough in debriefs that engineers want him back. If he manages that, a “busy week” becomes something much more valuable — the start of a proper Formula 1 conversation.
